


Harvester of Eyes

by caimani



Series: You'll Be In My Head By Midnight [1]
Category: Jonas Brothers, Waterparks (Band)
Genre: Awsten Knight and Kyle Fletchers are Twins, Blood, Halloween, M/M, Psychic Abilities, Supernatural Elements, Suspense, no violence, some really cute stuff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-01
Updated: 2019-10-29
Packaged: 2020-11-15 01:36:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 31
Words: 45,876
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20858072
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/caimani/pseuds/caimani
Summary: When Nick and his brothers travel to the eccentric city of Dove, Texas for a Halloween festival, he's not expecting to meet a cute local band frontman named Kyle. His charming week takes a turn for the worse, however, when a powerful entity overtakes Kyle and starts preying on the psychics of the city.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> nickle (nick/kyle) is my new favorite crack pairing and I am going to write it with [my Halloween prompts](https://caimani.tumblr.com/post/187456540413/31-prompts-for-halloween-2019) this year and I'm going to have so much fun

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> day 1: pumpkins

Kyle is sitting at his usual seat at the Pumpkin Space Cafe, holding his cup of tea that’s long since gone cold and watching the morning light just starting to paint the sky lighter. The clouds are still dark and grey, and the weather is cold and damp enough to bite through the thick hoodie he’s wearing. It looks like it’s going to be an overcast day, and the low pressure doesn’t really help the headache Kyle’s got from another night of no sleep. 

His phone buzzing in his pocket makes him jump. Quickly he digs it out, hoping it’s going to be the festival management people telling him he can bring DT’s stuff over now— but it’s not. 

It’s Awsten trying to facetime him. At five in the morning.

He texts his brother instead.

_why are you awake_

Awsten doesn’t stop trying to facetime him, but he responds quickly.

_IDIOT WHERE ARE YOU??? _

Kyle rolls his eyes and puts his phone on the table, screen-down. It keeps vibrating like an angry bee, joining in the distant noises of the coffee machines and ovens in the far back of the cafe. Kyle picks up his tea and sips it. He looks back out the large glass windows at the sky above. It looks like rain, but hopefully the festival won’t be ruined because of it. It’s not until tomorrow, but it’ll suck if the ground gets too muddy. 

Especially because… _that_ band is coming. 

Kyle picks up his phone again with the intention of checking Twitter, but his finger accidentally touches the wrong part of the screen and accepts the call.

“KYLE!” Awsten yells immediately, his face filling the screen. 

Kyle winces, but then he rolls his eyes to cover up the motion. “I’m hanging up on you.”

“Fuck, I recognize that place— I know exactly where you are,” Awsten says, leaning so close that all Kyle can see is his green eye. “Don’t you dare fucking leave. I’m coming to pick you up.”

“Leave me alone,” Kyle grumbles. “I’ve got a busy day tomorrow.”

Awsten’s face moves back slightly from the screen. He’s moving, presumably going outside to drive out to get Kyle. “Did you even come home last night?”

Kyle leans his face into his hand. “Didn’t wanna intrude on your sleepover with Jawn,” he says drily. “Have you guys actually done anything yet? Besides taking him on astral projection dates?”

“Hey,” Awsten says, sliding a pair of horribly tacky sunglasses on his face as he steps outside. “Jawn likes the astral projection dates. Don’t you, Jawn?”

Awsten tilts the phone back to show a bleary-eyed Jawn stumbling out the front door after Awsten. He looks tired, but it’s probably not from anything more than holding hands and kissing and watching movies late into the evening. Awsten and Jawn have been ridiculously boring since they got together almost a month ago. High school friends turned college best friends turned weirdly domestic boyfriends permanently living in each other’s spaces but not _doing_ anything about it. 

Maybe they just need some kind of push to get them closer together. Kyle thought they’d had that last month when Jawn finally asked Awsten on a date (only with a little bit of Kyle’s encouragement), but it clearly wasn’t enough.

Kyle’s head throbs from thinking about it.

“Hey, sorry Awsten woke you up so early,” he says to Jawn. “But I really don’t feel like third-wheeling you guys again today.”

“So what, are you just going to hover around Otto and Scott and Asher all day and complain about how Brandon can’t play his shit like you always do before a show until you’re allowed to go to Happy Halloween Fest and _then_ mope around hoping to see your popstar husband?” Awsten says, bringing his phone screen entirely too close to his face again. 

“Shut up,” Kyle grumbles, sinking low in his seat. 

“Your _HUSBAND_ who is going to be here for three days,” Awsten continues, his voice obnoxiously loud. 

Kyle really should end this call. There’s nobody here except the two employees making pastries and shit in the back, but he’s sure that Awsten is loud enough that he’s annoying them. He hunches in on himself even more and looks out the window again.

“Your _HUSBAND_, Nick Jo—”

Kyle drops his phone, prompting a startled noise from Awsten. Awsten starts calling his name, but Kyle can’t pay attention.

Because Nick Jonas— and Joe and Kevin— are walking past the window of the cafe, right in front of him. Only a pane of glass and about two feet separate Kyle from the faces he has plastered all over his walls at home (along with Gerard Way and Davey Havok and Bert McCracken and… yeah.) Just two feet separate Kyle from the people he wasn’t expecting to see until _tomorrow_, from a _distance_, probably from the other side of a barricade—

Oh shit, they’re coming in. 

“KYLE! Kyle, what’s going on?!” 

Shit, his phone is still facetiming Awsten. Kyle throws himself out of his seat to grab it off the floor, landing heavily on his left knee. Fuck, his hands are shaking. He doesn’t even pay attention to whatever Awsten’s saying as he hangs up and shoves his phone deep into his pocket. He tries to take a deep breath but that leads into hyperventilating. Fuck, he’s a fucking wreck. Think of something else. Maybe he’ll write a song about this later. Something about—

“Hey, are you okay?”

Kyle’s heart stops. And then it kicks into overdrive. Slowly he turns and tilts his head upwards. Nick Jonas is crouching down towards him, genuine concern on his face. Kyle thinks he could die like this. That’s the face of an angel right there. Maybe he’s already dead. 

“We, uh, we saw you fall.”

“I’m fine,” Kyle says. 

And Nick Jonas actually reaches a hand down to help him up. Kyle is sure that something inside him is going to explode. Either his heart or his head. Instead of taking Nick’s hand— because what if his own hands are sweaty, he can’t gross out Nick— he tries to stand on his own. Unfortunately, somewhere on the way from his brain to his legs, the message gets scrambled, and he falls backwards onto the floor, his head cracking loudly against the tiles.

Nick, Kevin, and Joe all look very concerned now, and they crowd closer. They all start talking at once, which hurts as soon as pain cuts through to Kyle’s air-deprived and panicked thoughts.

“Shit, are you—” 

“That sounded like it hurt—”

“Yeah, I don’t think you’re alright—”

“—hey, can someone back there get some ice!”

“—might have a concussion—” 

“—do you have someone we can call?”

“No,” Kyle chokes out. He sits up, much to the brothers’ protests. Nick and Joe crowd close, on either side, as he pushes himself up off the ground. Kevin’s gone to the counter, presumably to ask the employees for help. Joe and Nick each take careful hold of Kyle's arms—Nick Jonas is sort of, technically, holding his left hand, fuck— and help Kyle to a _booth_ of all places. Then they sit down, keeping him between the two of them. 

Kyle feels like a fucking damsel in distress. His face is hot and all he can think about is how he’s just made a complete fool of himself in front of his perfect and unattainable celebrity crush. And his celebrity crush’s celebrity brothers. Oh, and Awsten’s still trying to call him again, since his phone hasn't stopped buzzing in his pocket. 

Kyle drops his face into his hands.

“What are the symptoms of a concussion again?” Joe’s asking.

“I don’t have a concussion,” Kyle says into his hands. “I promise. I’m sorry. I’m a mess. Fuck. Sorry.”

Yeah, he’s definitely writing a song about this later. Something sad and somber and full of regrets and ‘I should have been satisfied being a nobody, looking at you through the misty morning glass’ or something. At least he’ll be moving on from writing songs about Otto.

“You’re going to have the worst bump later,” Nick says, leaning closer. His eyes are even more beautiful in person. Kyle might cry. No, he’s already tearing up, but at least Nick might think it’s from falling on the floor of the fucking Pumpkin Space Cafe.

“Yeah,” Kyle mumbles. What else can he say? He’ll probably treasure this moment later but for now, all he can do is suffer through his humiliation.

Kevin sits down at the table and hands over a ziplock bag full of ice. The barista is coming over too, with a couple of clear plastic cups full of water. Kyle takes the ice with a “thanks” and holds it gingerly against the back of his head. Damn it, it fucking hurts already. Performing at the festival tomorrow is going to suck.

“Performing?” Nick says.

Kyle blinks. “Did I say that out loud?”

“Are you— we’re in town for the Halloween Fest,” Joe says. “Are you doing that too?”

Kyle can’t meet any of their faces. “Yeah,” he tells the smooth wooden surface of the table. “I’m, uh, opening. One of the openers. My band is… yeah.”

“Whoa!” Kevin says. “What a coincidence!”

“You’re in December’s Tragedy, right?” Nick says. 

That gets Kyle to look up. He stares in awe at Nick. Did… did Nick look up the other bands playing? Does he recognize Kyle? Does he like their music? Does he hate their music?

“How the _fuck_ do you know—” Kevin says.

“He cheated,” Joe says. “Look at his hoodie.”

Kyle looks down at the hoodie he’s wearing. The one he put on… probably yesterday afternoon when he walked out of the house to avoid Jawn and Awsten being all lovey dovey together. It’s one of their new hoodies, one of the ones they’re going to start selling at the festival tomorrow. And of course, the band’s name is written in big letters at the top. That... well that makes sense.

In the stillness following Joe’s declaration, Kyle’s reminded of his phone buzzing. Fuck, that’s right. Awsten is on his way here. He might even be close, depending on if he's the one driving instead of Jawn.

“Um,” Kyle says. “Actually, uh.” Damn it, he needs to get himself and the Jonas Brothers out of here soon, otherwise Awsten will barge in and ruin everything. But he can’t just ask them to leave. And he doubts they’d let him just run out, what with how worried they seem about his wellbeing. Which—that's nice, actually that's really fucking sweet and it makes Kyle's chest ache with how much he loves them, but he needs to focus.

“I, uh,” he strains to think. “I need to get some, uh. Pain medicine.” That's a good enough excuse to leave. He can maybe try and run into Awsten and Jawn before they reach the cafe and see the Jonas Brothers.

“Oh, we’ve got some at the hotel,” Nick says. “If you don’t mind coming back with us.”

Oh god. Kyle’s head is killing him and he’s so dizzy that he’s glad he’s sitting down because he would definitely be falling over or passing out like a damn fool over this. This is like, straight out of Kyle’s dreams. The good ones, anyway. Not the— anyway. 

“I don’t wanna bother—” he protests weakly.

“It’s alright,” Joe says, covering a small yawn with his hand. “We’re not busy today, not really. The festival’s not until tomorrow. We just wanted to come a day early to check out this place. Dove’s got all these urban legends that we've heard about, and we were just going to spend the day looking around.”

“Hopefully not running into any ghosts,” Kevin says under his breath. Kyle keeps his mouth shut at that. 

“Actually,” Nick says. “If your head’s feeling alright, do you think you could show us around? Since you’re from here, right? If you're not busy, anyway.”

Kyle blinks. Then his eyes grow wide. Is he fucking dreaming? Did he actually fall asleep and now he’s dreaming a good dream for once?

“What?” Kevin says. 

There’s a soft thud and swear that Kyle instinctively knows is the sound of a sibling kicking another sibling under the table. Nick just smiles that smile that makes Kyle’s insides melt every time he sees it in an interview or on a poster or on a live show recording. He’s sitting so close that Kyle’s a little worried he can feel Awsten trying to get a hold of him on the stupid phone. He can probably hear it, if the sound of Kyle's pounding heart isn't drowning it out.

“If you want to,” Nick says.

“I want to,” Kyle answers, too fast, but Nick just smiles a bit softer in response.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> day 2: urban legends
> 
> hell yesss

Nick _did_ look up the other bands that are going to be performing at tomorrow’s Halloween Fest, despite whatever Joe and Kevin want to think. He looked at their Twitters and he thinks he watched some music videos or something, but admittedly he can’t really remember much from it. But he at least looked up the band and musician names.

He’d kind of forgotten about doing that, before coming to Dove. But he recognized December’s Tragedy, written on Coffeeshop Guy’s hoodie— right. He should ask Coffeeshop Guy’s name. Seeing as how he’s kinda hoping to keep flirting with him. 

“I’m Nick, by the way.”

Coffeeshop guy looks pale, but that might be the early morning light. Might also be the head injury. “I’m Kyle,” he says. 

Nick smiles, thinks about how cute Kyle is, but then suddenly wonders if he’s coming on too much. Kyle’s sort of smiling back. He seems a bit shaky and tense, but Nick is hoping that’s just due to the shock of meeting pop celebrities. He’s kind of used to it, but he’s hoping it’ll wear off soon. 

They’re walking back towards the hotel, all of them sticking close to Kyle just in case he falls again. Kyle briefly takes out his phone to send a text to someone before turning it off and putting it back in his pocket. 

Meanwhile, Kevin takes out that tourist booklet the receptionist gave them last night and opens it up again. Nick groans inwardly.

“Kyle, you live here, right?” Kevin says.

Kyle looks away from Nick and sees the booklet. “Oh god… that book is such bullshit. I mean, it’s alright for tourists I guess, but it’s so cheesy. All the locations are like, barely haunted. Dove has got way more creepy places than the ones in that book.”

Kevin looks concerned at that. “Like where?”

Kyle shrugs and looks down at the ground. “Like… everywhere? It’s probably easier to count how many places _don’t_ have some kind of ghost sighting or paranormal activity. Kinda makes the unnatural into normal, everyday stuff.”

“On the way here, we rewatched that episode on Ghost Hunters…” Joe says. 

“This is our hotel,” Nick interrupts, stopping Kyle before he walks past the big old building. In the hazy morning light, it’s less creepy than it looked when they arrived last night, but not by much. The Victorian architecture is old but gorgeous, and the wood paneling is painted a ghostly silvery blue. 

“The book says it’s sort of haunted,” Kevin says. “And the receptionist last night said so too.”

Kyle shrugs. “Yeah, that’s one place the book got right. But unless they updated it, then it’s real incomplete. It only goes into, like, three ghosts? From what I’ve heard, there’s more than a dozen ghosts that show up in there. Oh, but they’re all chill. They don’t bother you at all.”

“Good to know,” Joe says, his voice strained. 

“Not that we’re going to change, but are there any hotels around here that aren’t haunted?” Nick asks Kyle. 

Kyle shrugs. “Depends. Some of them have ghosts, and some of them have other stories attached to them. There’s another place that’s like, super popular for weddings ‘cause it’s on this cool property, and it’s also got this really old tree that can apparently bless the couple’s union if they do a certain ritual at it.”

“Like… magic?” Kevin says.

Kyle stuffs his hands in his pockets. “Yeah, probably. I’ve never gotten married there, so I don’t know exactly.”

Kevin puts the book away.

Nick is looking at Kyle a bit more curiously. There’s a question on the tip of his tongue and— Damn it, Kevin and Joe are infecting him with their interest in this paranormal nonsense. He’s got to think of a way to bring this back to flirting with Kyle. 

“Have you ever seen ghosts or magic stuff or that kind of thing?” Joe asks. 

Kyle looks away from Joe, momentarily meeting Nick’s eyes before dropping his gaze again. “Yeah, kind of. Fuck, you’ll probably see some weird stuff too. Just don’t, like, worry about it too much. Like I said, it’s kind of normal here.”

Nick bites his lip. They have succeeded in making Kyle a bit less nervous, but this conversation is really going to take them nowhere that Nick wants. Time to bring the mood back up.

“You know any not-so-haunted places we can get breakfast?” Nick says. “We were going to get something at the last place, but—” He stops short as Kyle’s face turns red. Oh no. He’s so fucking cute.

“Yeah, I know somewhere. It’s, uh, there’s a ghost from like the 70s that messes with the radio sometimes, but that’s it.”

Their group brightens up a bit as the conversation moves to 70s music, which then transitions to the Halloween Fest they’ll be playing at the next day. Nick’s been expecting something pretty laid-back and fun, and Kyle reassures them that, while the live music portion is definitely a big event, it’s not the main draw for the majority of the crowds, so they’ve got nothing to worry about. He and his brothers all perk up as Kyle lists some of the other events: carnival games, local cooking competitions, acting performances, a late-night masquerade ball, magic shows, and even more.

Kyle leads them on an easy path that ends at a cafe covered with so many Halloween decorations that Nick thinks it’s a gift shop or something. Inside, there’s even more pumpkins and bats and spiderwebs and glowing green and orange and purple light bulbs on strands, but it looks and smells like a cafe. 

They all order, get their food, and take a table in the back, just in case someone recognizes Nick and his brothers. 

Nick’s food is great, but he’s far more interested in stealing glances at Kyle. It hardly feels like a date with his brothers sitting at the table too, but he’s still enjoying it. He rehearses a few different things he could say to ask for Kyle’s number— but if he does, Joe and Kevin are definitely going to tease him about it. Probably in front of Kyle too. 

He can maybe wait until tomorrow. If he remembers the schedule correctly, December’s Tragedy will be playing first. He can show up early, watch Kyle perform, and ask if he wants to hang out and check out the festival together.

It’ll probably work. 

Kyle catches him staring and the two quickly look away from each other, but not so quickly that Nick doesn’t notice Kyle’s cheeks turning red again.

Yeah, he’s got a good chance.

Nick is wearing sunglasses and a thick scarf wrapped around the lower half of his face— it’s colder this morning than it was the day before— but his artist pass hanging around his neck totally gives him away. At least the crowd at the barricade isn’t that big, and nobody has screamed ‘Oh my god it’s Nick Jonas’. And he doesn’t think they can really see him from where he’s standing.

Kyle had waved at him with his really cute smile when he noticed Nick hanging out at the far right side of the stage. He and the rest of December’s Tragedy are almost done soundchecking now. It’s a four person band: Kyle sings and plays guitar, there’s another guitarist, a bassist, and a drummer. There’s also another guy who helped them set up, but he’s walking off to the other side of the stage. Kyle sneaks a not-so-sneaky glance towards Nick and his mouth morphs into an embarrassed little smile. So cute.

But Nick’s also excited to hear how they sound. More than a few of the people gathered at the barricade have been calling out to Kyle and the others, which is awesome. It’s not a huge crowd of fans, but they’ve got to be dedicated to be at the festival so early in the day.

Kyle turns to face the audience and grabs the microphone on the stand. 

He opens his mouth.

“Gimme that sweet, sweet candy, baby,” Kyle sings, and the crowd of fans immediately start shouting along. “Cause I got some tricks for you!” And the music erupts.

Nick takes in all of it: Kyle, the music, the band’s energy. It’s great. It’s better than great; it’s fun. The drummer is a beast, and so is the bass player. Kyle’s a magnet, with a voice even more beautiful than Nick’s been imagining. It takes Nick about half the song to realize Kyle’s playing lead as he sings and moves around. The song incredibly sexual, and Nick can’t help but lose himself a bit watching Kyle and listening to him making innuendos while absolutely shredding on his guitar. 

The fans clearly love it too. They’re singing along and jumping during each chorus, and Nick feels good, knowing there are people who love Kyle like that. He can barely stop staring at him.

When the song ends, Kyle yells out, “What’s up, Dove Halloween Fest!” The crowd cheers in response. “We are December’s Tragedy! Thanks for coming to check us out. I can recognize, like, all of you guys in the front down there— yeah, hi!” He pauses to wave. “We’re stoked to be here, the first band playing today. Before I talk too much about how excited I am, I think we’re gonna play another song.” 

The crowd cheers again. Kyle grins. “Yeah? Alright, this one’s called Psychic, sing along if you know it!”

Psychic is faster and heavier than the first song, and the lyrics and metaphors feel deeper. Kyle throws all of himself into performing, singing about struggling with self identity and fear. It’s intense, and yet Nick still gets distracted by how hot Kyle looks when he throws back his head as he plays an incredibly difficult-sounding guitar solo. 

Nick goes to get his phone to take a picture. As soon as he does, he gets a text from Joe. Whatever, he can read it later. 

“Alright, that was f— freakin’ awesome,” Kyle says. The crowd laughs a bit and Kyle makes a face. 

The bass player walks up to his microphone and speaks up, “They told us we’re not allowed to swear. So we’re not going to be playing Voicemail Serenade.”

The crowd sounds upset at that.

“But we are playing Lifesaver!” Kyle says, and his announcement is met with more cheers. One girl yells ‘I love that song!’ and Kyle beams. “Yeah! I love that song too! Otto, Ash, Brandon, you all love that song, right? Yeah! Come on!” 

Lifesaver is sweet and yet very emotional. Nick loves it, although he frowns a bit when the bassist comes over to lean against Kyle. The two sing into the same microphone for the second verse, and then split apart again. The fans love it, but it leaves a strange feeling in Nick’s chest, and he can’t quite enjoy the rest of the song as much as he’d like to.

He hasn’t been misreading Kyle’s signals, has he? Have there even been signals? 

Maybe Nick needs to slow down a bit. He’s used to either charming fans or flirting with other celebrities with jokes or sweet talk. Kyle is… he needs to think of a good approach to this. And fast, because December’s Tragedy’s set isn’t going to be for much longer. 

After Lifesaver comes Minus, which is raw and fast and full of gut-wrenching lyrics. Kyle’s guitar playing is unbelievable, and Nick would feel jealous but he’s a bit more turned on and looking forward to complimenting Kyle on it later. 

Kyle’s panting slightly when the song finishes. “Alright, it’s been fun, y’all, but we’ve only got time for one more today.” At the protests of the crowd, he adds, “Hey! We’ll be back tomorrow! And you’ve seen the lineup, right?” He lists off the other bands playing, pausing for the crowd to cheer for each one. “And I know we’re all excited for the Jonas Brothers, right!” After the screams of the crowd start to die down, Kyle laughs into his microphone. “F-frick yeah! But they’re not playing yet! So before we go—here’s Look The Part!”

Somehow, Kyle has managed to save the most energetic and intense song for last. Look The Part is the kind of song that deserves a sea of fans and a constant circle pit. The fans yelling along to the words is awesome, but Nick can’t stop watching Kyle, throwing himself around on stage whenever he’s not playing and singing fierce lyrics about rivalries and spite and stolen love. 

As soon as the song ends, Nick moves farther back, staying out of the way as festival staff come to help clear up the stage. Deciding it might be best to wait near the van that the drummer used to bring the gear, he turns to leave the stage area altogether and nearly runs directly into a guy who—

A guy who looks exactly like Kyle.

No, not exactly. This guy has the same face and is the same height, but his hair is dyed blue and he’s wearing a bright and heavy-looking sweater that’s too big on him. The guy— Nick guesses he might be Kyle’s family— gives Nick a funny look, but all he says is, “Excuse me,” as he moves around him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> yes kyle 100% forgot about his excuse of going to get pain meds but so did the jobros


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> day 3: magic

December’s Tragedy’s stuff is safely packed up again in Asher’s van. Asher’s climbed into the front seat, with Otto in the passenger seat. Brandon has disappeared already, which just leaves Kyle standing on the slightly-damp ground. Well, Kyle and the weight of Nick Jonas staring at his back from about fifty feet away. Kyle hesitates, because there are a bunch of things he _should_ do right now, but only one thing he really wants to do. No, actually it’s two things. 

Kyle leans into the open window and catches Otto’s gaze. “Hey, I’m gonna stick around with Scott for a bit, meet any fans that are over at his table.” 

Otto nods. “I’ve just got to get to the store. Tabitha called out and I don't want Geoff to be alone all day.”

“I’ve got some shit to do too,” Asher says. “But I’ll definitely be able to stay tomorrow, if they ask. And we’ve got those shows coming up next month.”

Kyle nods. “Alright. See ya.”

He backs away from the van as his two bandmates leave. Heart pounding, he turns around. Oh fuck, Nick is walking this way. Kyle swallows nervously.

“I, um,” Kyle says. 

“That was an awesome performance,” Nick says, and he actually sounds like he means it. “I loved it.”

Kyle’s stunned. “You— you did?”

“Yeah,” Nick says. “You’re amazing up there. You were playing lead, right?”

Kyle nods dumbly. “Yeah, cause Brandon sucks shit. Uh, I mean— thanks. I, um. I wrote all those songs. With Otto and Asher, but.”

Nick’s smile is so fucking nice. Kyle has no fucking clue why he’s hanging around behind the stage now— the Jonas Brothers’ set isn’t for another three hours— but like hell is he gonna comment on that. Nick Jonas is here, as gorgeous as ever, and still talking to him for some reason. Kyle is going to cling to this for as long as he can. 

“You, um,” Nick says. “You wanna watch us later today?”

“Of course!” Kyle says, kicking himself on the inside for how he sounds like a fan. Whatever, he _is_ a fan and he’s fine with Nick knowing that. “I love you guys— when I heard the lineup announced, I fucking lost it. You guys are gonna have the biggest crowd to watch you.”

“You guys had a great crowd too,” Nick says.

Kyle jumps a little at the reminder. “Right! I, um, I wanna go to Scott’s merch table for a bit, actually. You can stay back here if you don’t want to—”

“No, I’ll come with.”

And that’s some pressure right there. But Kyle tries to push down the nerves and concentrate on the task at hand. He leads Nick towards the table where Scott’s set up with CDs and t-shirts. It’s out of the way, but there’s a small group of people— almost all of whom Kyle’s seen at December’s Tragedy shows before. A pair of girls notice him coming over and they wave excitedly, making Kyle grin.

He hugs each fan, poses for pictures, signs some festival posters, and promises them that the whole band will be at the table the next day. He kind of loses track of Nick during the excitement of it all, but after the last group of teenagers walks away, he turns around to see Nick sitting in the far corner of the merch tent, watching him from behind his phone.

“That’s nice,” Nick says. “Meeting them all. I— we can’t do that, but I wish we could.”

Scott laughs. “The cons of being famous?”

Kyle feels a small ache inside himself. One day… he hopes to be in Nick’s position. Hear his songs on the top hits radio, headline festivals, not have to work part-time at Target while living at home… 

Nick puts his phone away and stands up. “So what’s the best thing to do here? You were talking about free food and magic shows yesterday.”

Kyle’s breath catches in his throat. Nick wants to hang out with him _even more_? He feels like he might have dreamt this a while back, but if he did, he immediately dismissed it as a normal dream. 

“If you’re looking for free food, the pulled pork contest is in about an hour,” Scott says. “They give away free tasting portions for the public voting.”

Kyle brightens up. “You wanna check that out? In an hour, but— we can look at the craft show until then.”

Nick smiles and nods. “Yeah.”

Scott leans back in his chair as Nick and Kyle leave the tent. There’s some other vendors around this area, as well as empty tables waiting for the other musicians to arrive and set up merch, but it’s not until they turn a corner that they really start to enter arts-and-crafts territory. Kyle always likes looking at all of the things for sale: clothing, woodwork, glass art, jewelry, essential oils (he considers taking a picture of that for Awsten), soaps, yarn, wreaths, furniture, and of course, magic stuff.

Kyle doesn’t really care about the tents with the fortune tellers and mystics, but he notices that Nick stops to look at one particularly flashy one. He tries to hold back his distaste. The kinds of psychics who do that crap are useless when it comes to— to what Kyle deals with. Yeah, he’s a little bitter about it. 

Thankfully, not long after, he pulls Kyle up to a table full of alpaca yarn scarves and mittens. It’s both adorable and mesmerising watching Nick feel the scarves and lift some of them up to hold against his neck in the mirror. 

“I’m going to get this,” Nick announces, turning to Kyle. “Did you want something?”

“N-no?” Kyle says, unsure. Was he— he’s not exactly planning on spending much here. But as Nick pays and wraps the scarf around his neck, a sudden thought hits Kyle.

This feels like a date.

Is this a date?

Oh god. Oh fuck.

Is… was Nick offering to get him something? Or was he asking Kyle to get that scarf for him?

He’s still in shock at how he’s spending time with Nick. Are they spending time together with, like, _attraction_ in mind? Kyle’s definitely attracted to Nick, but…

“It’s, uh,” Kyle sputters. “It’s nice. That you’re hanging out. You know. With me.”

Nick’s smile goes straight to Kyle’s heart and fills his chest with butterflies. “Yeah. You’re cool. When I met you yesterday, I was hoping we’d be able to do this. Something like this.”

Something like a sort-of date? Kyle’s going to assume so, but as excited as his heart is about that, his mind tries to remind him to keep it a bit casual, just in case. After all, Nick’s at a festival that he’s never been to with tons of cool shit to do. And Kyle can completely understand the desire to avoid your brothers as much as possible.

“Kyle,” Nick says, and the butterflies and warmth in Kyle’s chest drown out the voice of reason in his head again. 

“Yeah,” he says, his voice sounding a mile away.

“I, um, I saw a sign for magic shows back there. There’s one starting soon. Do you want to go see it?”

The butterflies calm down again. Kyle thinks for a second. “Yeah,” he says. Magic shows are just fun, after all. As long as they don’t volunteer for audience participation. He doesn’t need anyone trying to hypnotize him or read his mind or anything. 

Nick looks excited. Kyle’s chest swells. He’s going to miss this when Nick leaves in a few days, but for now, he’s happy to have it. 

On the way to the magic show stage, Kyle stops them at a food vendor’s table and buys two large slices of pizza: for him and Nick. Because there’s no line and they smell good. And also because he’s completely gone for Nick’s happy little faces. Nick thanks him for the food and tries to pay him back, but Kyle keeps refusing it until he stops.

He pays for their tickets for the magic show before Kyle can, though. It’s getting harder to convince Kyle’s voice of reason that this might not be a date.

They get seats in the back, just in case someone recognizes Nick. Kyle panics a little about how close they’re sitting, even after the show starts with clouds of smoke rolling out from beneath the stage and an eruption of colorful confetti from the magician’s hat. 

Kyle takes a moment to check his phone as the magician talks. Awsten’s texting him again. Scott and Asher have texted him too, and he needs to remember to check those soon. Another text comes from Awsten, so he sighs and skims the one-sided conversation Awsten’s been having.

_JUST SAW YOUR HUSBAND_

_ARE YOU STAYING AFTER THE SHOW? JAWN WANTS TO MEET FOR LUNCH WITH YOU AND THE GUYS_

_OK JUST TALKED WITH SCOTTY, WHEN WERE YOU GOING TO TELL ME YOU’RE TRYING TO GET IN NICK JONAS’S PANTS????? _

_HOW DID YOU EVEN MEET HIM???_

_HELLO?? ARE YOU WITH HIM RIGHT NOW???_

_dude just leave me alone, pay attention to jawn hes a needy boyfriend_

“Whoa!” Nick exclaims, along with the rest of the crowd. Kyle puts his phone away and looks up to see the magician spinning about half a dozen colorful balls in a loop above his head.

“How is he— that’s not wires or magnets, is it?” Nick whispers to Kyle.

Kyle squints at the display. It’s not the first time he’s seen a telekinetic, although it’s rare to see someone able to control so many objects at once. “Probably not,” he says in answer to Nick. “I told you there’s real magic here. Either that guy’s for real, or he’s got someone helping him who is.”

Nick is speechless. He’s on the edge of his seat for the rest of the thirty-minute show, grabbing excitedly at Kyle when something particularly impressive happens, which makes Kyle’s heart race so much that he’s getting dizzy. Nick actually grabs his hand and squeezes it when the magician starts walking upside down inside a giant sphere and Kyle loses the ability to think of anything besides the point of contact between them.

Nick Jonas. 

Holding.

His _hand_.

Nick lets him go a moment later, stuttering out an apology that Kyle can barely hear through the thick fog in his brain.

“S’okay,” he mumbles, face red-hot.

The show ends without any more accidental touches, and Kyle’s kind of sad about it, but he’s also still losing his mind about the hand thing. Nick did that. He did that. Kyle’s going to remember this day for the rest of his life.

He’s nearly forgotten about the free barbecue until he hears another person in the audience mention it as everyone’s getting up and leaving after the show. 

“You still want some free food?” he asks Nick. 

Nick smirks back at him. “Thought I already got free food from you.”

Kyle gapes at him a little. That’s flirting, right? Nick Jonas is flirting? With him?

“Yeah, I’d like some more free food,” Nick says with a laugh. He moves like he’s about to reach out for Kyle, but he stops and puts his hands in his pockets instead. Probably for the best; Kyle’s not sure how much longer he can handle being in close proximity to Nick without doing something horribly embarrassing like crying if Nick holds his hand again.

What a mess. Was he like this with Otto?

...yeah he kind of was. The first week anyway.

“I was wondering earlier,” Nick says as they walk. “Your band. How much music have you put out so far?”

“Um,” Kyle says. “We’ve got two EPs. And a lot of songs that we haven’t, like, recorded properly. We’re working on an album, but I’m not sure how we’re going to get studio time. My, um— I’ve got a brother who’s willing to help out, but if it’s going to happen like that, then I want to be able to record in as little time as possible. So… me and Otto and Asher are trying to make sure the songs are as perfect as we can make them before we do that.”

“I bet it’s going to be amazing when you’re done,” Nick says. “You guys sounded amazing, really. I feel lucky that I get to see you perform three times at this festival.”

Kyle bites at his lip to hold back the massive smile threatening to spread across his face. “Thanks,” he says to the ground in front of him, because he doesn’t think he can look at Nick without looking like a doofus. “I can… I can play you some demos tomorrow after my set if you wanna hear ‘em…”

“I’d love that.”

The free barbecue is great, but it’s more crowded than the other places they’ve been. Kyle’s pretty sure some people are recognizing Nick, but thankfully nobody’s come up to talk to him yet. He wants to hang onto Nick for himself for just a little while longer. He doubts he’ll be able to have this opportunity to hang out with Nick (on a maybe-date?) on the next day or the last day of the festival. 

They vote for their favorites, and go to wash their hands. As they’re drying off, Nick sighs.

Kyle looks over at him in alarm, but Nick’s just taking his phone out. “Our manager is trying to get me,” he says apologetically to Kyle.

“No, yeah, I get it,” Kyle says. Guess this is the end of it then. Nick has a brief (and surprisingly sassy) conversation with his manager on the phone, and then he hangs up with another sigh.

“Well, I’ve got to get back to the stage area now,” he says. “This was really fun, though. Thanks, for spending time with me. And showing me around.”

Kyle smiles at him, trying to ignore the sinking sadness that’s starting to swallow up his heart. This is it for him and Nick Jonas. The end of the dream. 

The walk back to the stage takes only a few minutes. Each step feels heavy, and Kyle hopes that Nick isn’t picking up on his sadness at the end of their date (or maybe not a date but there was definitely/probably some flirting from both sides).

When they reach the area behind the stage, which is cluttered with more people and vehicles than when they left earlier, Nick stops and grabs Kyle’s hand again. 

“You’re going to watch, right?” he says. “It— I’d like it. If you did.”

Kyle’s chest fills with hope again. “Yeah. Of course I’m gonna watch.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this is so cute :D its not gonna last tho.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> day 4: fallen leaves
> 
> a much shorter lil chunk of the story, but thats ok. certain ones to come will be much longer

“He’s got to be somewhere,” Awsten grumbles, kicking at a mound of damp leaves on the ground. “And if he’s with Nick Jonas, it can’t be _this_ hard to find him.”

Jawn just hums to himself and looks in the other direction. He’s not sure whether to be rooting for Awsten or Kyle at the moment, really. He should probably be a good boyfriend and support Awsten’s insistence on keeping track of his elusive younger twin, but… it’s kind of been all that Awsten’s been focused on for the past day and a half. 

Awsten mutters to himself as he starts sending more texts to Kyle. Jawn doubts Kyle will read them anytime soon.

“Can’t we just leave him to do whatever he wants?” Jawn says. “I mean, he likes the Jonas Brothers, right?”

“Yeah,” Awsten says, not looking up from his phone screen. “Especially Nick. But that’s not why I want to find him.”

Jawn crosses his arms. “Why then? He always wanders off and ignores you like this.”

“Because— fuck,” Awsten puts his phone back and rubs at his face. “So the other night? When we were doing our thing? I— you remember that big fucking shadowy thing we saw that one time? Like a month ago?”

Jawn nods, his stomach turning with the memory. There are a lot of weird things in the astral-spiritual world that Awsten can travel into— and bring Jawn into as well— and that thing is possibly the most unsettling thing they’ve seen. And they had only seen it from a distance. 

A huge shadow, stretching through so much of the astral-spiritual world, cold and dark as a moonless night. 

“What about— what’s that got to do with Kyle?” Jawn says.

Awsten shifts from one foot to another, looking around before leaning in close to Jawn. “So… the last time we astral projected, I felt that thing again. And it felt… close. I don’t know how to explain it. When I tried to look for it, I… heard Kyle’s name. Like a whisper, but it echoed, like a psychic force ripple. I think… I think that shadow thing said it.”

Jawn’s eyes are wide. “What?” he says.

“See? It was freaky!” Awsten exclaims, waving his arms around a bit. “I don’t— I can’t just tell Kyle that over text, but he’s been avoiding me since I saw it. I need to tell him, in person.”

“You think… you think it’s like something evil?” Jawn says. 

Awsten looks away. “I… I mean, to my knowledge, the worst shit we’ve got in this city is like, poltergeists and shit. Nothing super bad, still not ideal for a psychic like Kyle, but… But I’ve seen what poltergeists and nasty ass ghosts look like in the astral-spirit world. They’re not big, not like that thing. Fuck, I don’t even know for sure if that thing is what said Kyle’s name but… I just have a bad feeling. Since Mom and Dad and Gracie are all out on that college visit week, and it's just us at home, I want to... You know, make sure Kyle's okay.”

Jawn nods. He looks around the two of them, but he still can’t see Kyle. Or Nick Jonas. 

“If he’s still with Nick Jonas, then they could be anywhere,” he says. “But Nick will have to come back to the stage eventually. We can wait, see when they come back, and then jump Kyle once he’s alone.”

Awsten brightens up. “Perfect.”

Jawn reaches out to take Awsten’s hands. His skin is cold from the chilly autumn weather, so Jawn slides Awsten’s sweater sleeves down, before pressing a kiss against the fabric and then holding them close, against his chest. 

“We’ll find him,” he promises. “And whatever that is— it’ll be okay.”

Awsten snorts and pulls his hands back. He leans close to kiss Jawn’s forehead. “Shut up, I know it’s going to be okay. And even if— you can’t do shit against psychic bullshit anyway, _Jawn_. You don't have psychic powers.”

"I can tell when you want to be kissed, though," Jawn points out.

Awsten rolls his eyes. "Yeah. Not now, dumbass."

Jawn smiles and tries to grab Awsten’s hands again, but Awsten starts walking. Jawn hurries to catch up with him and succeeds at taking Awsten’s left hand in his right. 

“And I don't need psychic powers. I did pretty good helping you out in the astral-spirit world that one time. Remember?”

Awsten scoffs but leans his shoulder against Jawn’s. “Yeah. Now shut up. We gotta find a good spot to stake the place out. The Jonas Brothers’ set starts in an hour.”


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> day 5: monsters

The stage area is bustling and crowded when Awsten reaches it, with Jawn not far behind him. Fans and festival attendees are packed into any space available, either singing and dancing along or just watching. It’s all loud and energetic. The last band before the Jonas Brothers is still in the middle of their set, playing a damn good show from what Awsten can see and hear. 

But as Awsten tries squeezing around the edges of the crowd towards the stage, he realizes he has a problem.

“Fuck!” he says, spinning to face Jawn. “We can’t get back there.”

Jawn looks confused. “Huh?”

Awsten gestures wildly. “Badges. Fuck— artist IDs, or whatever the hell they’ve got. Kyle’s got one, so he’s probably back there, but we don’t. We can’t get back there without them.”

Jawn winces. “Oh shit. You think you could pretend to be Kyle and say you’ve lost yours?”

Awsten grits his teeth and looks back at the backstage area, or what he can see of it past the barriers and fences. There’s definitely a lot more security than there was earlier, when Awsten was hanging out back there looking for Kyle. No way he’s going to be able to bullshit his way in there now. 

Suddenly he spots a familiar face.

“KYLE!” he yells, taking off at top speed. 

The little bastard is walking side by side with fucking Nick Jonas, wearing that dumb little smile on his dumb idiot face. Awsten’s going to punch his lights in when he catches him. He reaches the chain link fence separating the backstage area from the rest of the fair and yells again.

Of course, the goddamn moron ignores him. Awsten whips out his phone and sends three texts in rapid succession.

_TURN_

_AROUND_

_NOW!!!!_

Kyle doesn’t even make any indication that he’s noticed the texts. Awsten needs to get someone to fucking hack his phone to just yell his texts out as soon as he gets them. 

Awsten’s eyes narrow. “I swear, he’s doing all of this to piss me off.” And it’s working, but damn it, this is not the time for this shit. Not when Awsten actually has a genuine reason to be worried about his idiot twin. 

Jawn puts a hand on Awsten’s shoulder, making him jump a little. “Hey, he always answers Steve when he calls, right? Why don’t you try and tell Steve to get his attention? He can explain it’s important, and Kyle will listen then.”

Awsten shuts his eyes and drops his head against the fence in frustration. Going to Kyle through Steve is such a dumb childish thing to do… but it always works. Kyle listens to Steve. He’ll ignore Awsten and Gracie and even their parents, but he never stopped worshipping Steve. Getting Steve to tell Kyle to do something works better than the old ‘Mom and Dad said you have to do this’ did when they were kids. Still… 

“Steve’s going to ask what’s so important and I don’t have time to explain all of this to him,” Awsten says, going to his contacts. “Not if I want to— oh.”

Scott. 

Awsten whirls around. “Better idea: we borrow Scott’s pass.”

The two of them run back to the December’s Tragedy tent, where Scott is reclining in a camping chair and eating a bucket of french fries. He waves at them when they arrive.

“Scott, I need your artist pass,” Awsten says breathlessly. 

Scott gives him a curious look and lowers the fries. “Uh… sure, I guess, but why? And you’re gonna get it back before tomorrow?”

“Yeah, yeah, I promise,” Awsten says. “And I— Kyle’s being a bitch and I need to grab him.”

Scott laughs. “Ghosting you for Nick Jonas, huh? I dunno, I think it’s cute. Hope he doesn’t get his heart broken. Popstars, you know.”

“Uh huh,” Awsten says. He’s running out of time. Or… maybe not, but he’d rather take care of this sooner, since it’s been over a day and a half since the astral-spirit encounter. He reaches out an eager hand at Scott. 

Chuckling, Scott takes his lanyard off and passes it over. “Just give it to Kyle when you’re done; he’ll get it back to me.”

“Thanks, Scott,” Jawn says.

Scott waves. 

Awsten throws the lanyard around his neck and runs back towards the backstage area. He slows down as he reaches the security personnel, who take a look at his badge and nod him through, but won’t let Jawn come along. 

“I’ll wait with Scott,” Jawn says. “Let me know when you’re out.”

Awsten nods and turns back to face the people in the backstage area. Probably all of them are with the Jonas Brothers, and they’re all fucking intimidating. He keeps to the edge with his borrowed artist’s pass, and looks around for his brother. When he doesn’t immediately see a scrawny emo idiot with dumb hair and a Paramore tshirt, he takes a deep breath, tries to project a vibe of ‘I belong here and I know what I’m doing,’ and strides further into the backstage area. 

After a few strained minutes of walking around and trying not to get in anyone’s way, he starts to lose confidence. He can’t find Kyle— or any of the Jonas Brothers— anywhere. And despite his pass, he doubts these guys will be too happy if he starts asking where Nick Jonas is.

So he does the next best thing. He waits near the ramp to the stage. Kyle will have to pass by eventually, if he’s planning on watching Nick Jonas from as close a place as possible. The minutes tick by and Awsten’s not comfortable waiting, but the memory of that voice in the astral-spirit world keeps him there.

He just… he just wants Kyle to know. He wants to make sure he stays safe. 

Finally, his waiting pays off. As the band onstage finishes their last song and crews move equipment around, Awsten finally catches sight of Kyle exiting one of the SUVs gathered near the trucks with all the band gear. He stays rooted to his spot, arms crossed and scowling.

Kyle spots him and goes tense, but then he visibly sighs and resumes walking towards him.

“You’re a bitch,” Awsten says as greeting.

“Yeah,” Kyle mumbles, walking past him up the ramp.

“I had to steal Scott’s pass to get in here,” Awsten says, following him so closely behind that he steps on Kyle’s ankles a few times. Purely by accident. 

“What’s with all the attention?” Kyle says. He takes up a spot on the side of the stage, out of the way of the crews and mostly out of view of the crowd below. “You wanna sabotage me?”

“No,” Awsten says. He presses his lips together and glances around. The setting sucks, but he might as well say it here. It’s important. “I saw something when I astral projected the other night.”

“Your boyfriend?” Kyle says dryly. 

“No, it was a— it was something big. Something… bad.” Kyle actually looks at him with a questioning face, and Awsten shifts on his feet. “Probably,” he says. “I— I just want you to be… Since big psychic shit like that is—” 

“Bad for my sleep,” Kyle says under his breath. “Yeah, I get it. Whatever. Thanks, I guess. I’ll burn the candles and set up barriers and all that crap.”

Awsten’s shoulders slump. He might get jealous of Kyle for a lot of things— the fact that he asked Otto out first, the fact that he’s not doing half bad as a band— but he’s never envied Kyle’s psychic ability. 

“If you sleep at home tonight, I can try and watch out for you,” he offers. 

Kyle offers him a small smile. “Thanks.”

Okay. 

Okay that works. Awsten leans against the nearest sturdy object, feeling relieved. He should go and tell Jawn it all worked out, but after finally accomplishing his goal, he’s kind of tired. He lingers next to Kyle, watching the Jonas Brothers’ crew set up.

“So you went on a date with Nick?” he says, a smile curling at his face. 

Kyle goes rigid. “Shut up,” he says.

Awsten cackles. “I can’t believe you! My lame brother, in his little emo band, managed to get— fuck, that’s so funny. Good for you!”

Kyle swats at him. “Shut up! It doesn’t matter anyway, he’s going to leave in a couple days.”

Awsten’s delight sinks a little. “Yeah. That just means you’ve got to make a hell of an impression on him. Wait ‘til tomorrow though, otherwise you might scare him away.”

“I don’t need advice from you,” Kyle hisses. “You asked for advice from me about Jawn!”

“And now I’m trying to return the favor,” Awsten says.

“Ugh,” Kyle says. “Just… shut up. The show’s going to start soon.”

Not really, since the Jonas Brothers have a hell of a stage to set up, but Awsten lets Kyle have his peace. He shoots Jawn a few texts assuring him that everything’s alright and he’s taking advantage of the pass— and Kyle’s welcome presence sidestage— to watch the show from up close. A few of the Jonas Brothers’ crew people shoot them some weird looks, but Awsten’s long since gotten used to the ‘twins?’ look. 

He’s definitely the better-looking twin.

Soon, the Jonas Brothers appear and the music starts. The fans below scream and cheer, and Awsten feels weirdly elated to be in his spot. So close he could take two or three steps and be out there. The Jonas Brothers’ stage presence is incredible, and he notices Nick Jonas glance over at where he and Kyle are standing several times during the first song. Holy shit.

Kyle must be losing his goddamn mind. 

When the first song ends, Awsten leans forward to grab Kyle’s arm. Kyle turns to look at him over his shoulder. His face is oddly… distant. Not, it’s not unusual for Kyle to be distant but it’s weird that he’s like that now.

Awsten forgets what he was about to say. He frowns. “Aren’t you enjoying this?” he says.

Kyle blinks. “I’m enjoying it.” He reaches up to fuss with his hair and then puts his shaking hands back in his pockets. “I’m trying not to like, freak out so much. Since he’s watching.”

Okay… that makes sense. Still, as the show continues, Awsten finds it strange that Kyle doesn’t act like a massively embarrassing fan. He doesn’t scream or cry or jump or anything. Kyle’s been freaking out about this day for months, and now that the day’s here, and he’s literally living out his dream, he’s so… unenthusiastic. Nick keeps smiling when he looks over, but he wouldn’t know. Kyle’s probably been trying to act cool all day, despite how colossally uncool he really is.

He’s the kind of guy who waits all day at the barricade and breaks into tears when he sees the band step out and puts his whole heart into singing back every single word of every single song.

No. The way Kyle’s acting now is just— Something is… something is wrong. As another song finishes and all Kyle does is smile and clap, something clenches in Awsten’s chest. 

Was he too late?

He needs to check… it’ll only take a moment…

As slowly as he can, Awsten moves back to lean against the metal frame he was leaning on earlier. He can do this subtly. Quietly. Quickly. He just needs something solid, so he doesn’t collapse if it gets too much.

Once he’s steady against the metal frame of the stage, Awsten takes a slow breath. It’s harder to do this in a noisy environment, but he’s done it like this before. He closes his eyes and concentrates on the psychic power within him.

And suddenly Kyle’s hand grabs his shoulder. Awsten instinctively shrugs him off, opening his eyes again. 

Kyle has a tired yet predatory look in his eyes. His mouth is smiling softly. Combined, it’s extremely unsettling.

“You’re going to astral-project _here_?” he says, a creepy note of amusement in his tone. “Aren’t you enjoying the show?”

Awsten wishes he could back away but… but if his suspicions are correct— then fuck. What would backing away, or running away, even accomplish? A shadow that big...

“Is Kyle enjoying it?” he says, somehow keeping his voice from shaking. 

Kyle grins and a laugh escapes him. 

Ice settles in Awsten’s chest. 

No.

“Nice job, Awsten. Looks like I couldn’t fool you for too long. You always were the smart one, weren’t you?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> yall I had such a great day today :D went to a fair with my mom (tickets were her birthday gift) and had such a wonderful time


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> day 6: costumes

By some miracle, Joe makes it through the entire show without tripping on the air and falling on his face. Nick was hoping he would, so he would look cooler by comparison. 

But Kyle’s still standing at the side of the stage, watching him. At some point the other guy (probably Kyle’s brother, after Nick gave it some thought) left, but Kyle’s still there. Nick heads over to him as soon as he can, once the last song is done. The combination of the cheering of the fans in the audience and seeing Kyle’s face reminds him of earlier, how Kyle was able to stay and meet every single fan after his own performance.

There’s no way their management would agree to Nick and Joe and Kevin doing that here and now, not without selling passes for it or holding a contest or something. 

Nick pushes the thought out of his mind. There’s nothing he can do about that. Maybe tomorrow, when December’s Tragedy is meeting their fans, Nick can hang out in the back and say hi to anyone who comes up. Maybe.

“You’re amazing,” Kyle says, his voice soft and awed. 

Nick freezes. Somehow, Kyle is even cuter in the orange light of the sunset. The sun finally came out from behind the clouds just in time for it to set, and the result was a perfect glowing conclusion to their performance. And now, it casts Kyle in soft lighting that could be straight out of a romance movie. 

Unfortunately, Nick thinks he used up all his smoothness trying to act cool and collected around Kyle earlier in the day.

“Thanks,” he says. 

All of a sudden, he feels two very familiar weights leaning against him on either side.

“What’s up Kyle!” Joe says. “Nice seeing you again! So Nick hasn’t said anything to you to make you run screaming yet?” Nick elbows him as hard as he can and Joe wheezes.

Kyle laughs, covering his mouth as he does so. God damn it, he’s so cute. 

“Where’d your brother go?” Kevin says. “That’s who was with you, right?”

“Yeah. Awsten.” Kyle says. He looks away with a distant expression for a few seconds. “He got tired and had to leave early. I got his boyfriend to pick him up.”

“Is he older or younger?” Joe asks. 

“We’re twins,” Kyle answers. 

“Cool,” Nick says, for lack of a better thing to say. He’d really like to get this back to anything that could make Kyle like him more, but that’s going to be difficult with Joe and Kevin right here, ready to make Nick look like an awkward fool. Or at least expose Nick for the awkward fool he knows he is. 

“So I checked out your music last night, Kyle,” Joe says. “It’s good. Nick said he didn’t want to, though.”

Nick feels his entire body heat up. Oh no. Not this.

Kyle’s face falls and no, no that’s not how it is—

“I wanted to hear it in person,” Nick says. “I— I was planning on coming and listening to you performing live.”

“He left so early,” Kevin says. “He still took forever getting ready, but it was so early it was still dark.”

“Hey, Kyle, you wanna talk somewhere else?” Nick says desperately. “I want to—”

“I want to come,” Joe says immediately.

Nick turns to face his brother with a blinding smile. “Get lost.”

“Actually,” Kyle says. “Sorry, but… I kinda have something else to do.”

Hearing those words traps Nick’s breath in his lungs and tightens a vise around his heart. It feels kind of pathetic, feeling so upset about Kyle rejecting him after only knowing each other for a day and a half but… but he felt something really special about Kyle. He wants to hear his demos and see him laugh and maybe kiss him one day—

“Oh, it’s alright, don’t worry!” Kyle says, breaking through the panic Nick’s feeling. “I just— I’m just meeting up with someone to get something done. It’s not— you didn’t do anything, Nick. I… I mean, if you want to… I still want to see you tomorrow.”

“Yeah,” Nick says, relieved but also suddenly exhausted from the emotional whiplash. “Yeah, you… I’ll see you tomorrow.”

Kyle smiles at him. 

Nick takes a breath. “Can I get your number, first?”

Joe and Kevin are going to tease him forever. But at least now, he’s alright. He’s going to see Kyle tomorrow and it’s going to be perfect. He knows a little more about him now, so he can figure out something they can do that will win Kyle over more. Something that will make him want to keep talking with Nick after this week.

Kyle thanks him before he turns and starts walking away.

“You should have kissed him,” Kevin says.

“You definitely should not have kissed him,” Joe counters. 

Nick rolls his eyes and stomps away from them. “You guys are like the angel and the devil on my shoulders, except you’re both devils. I hate you.”

“We were testing him,” Joe says. “If the two of you get together—”

“If,” Nick repeats to himself.

“—then he should know what he’s getting himself into.”

“He’s got a twin brother,” Nick points out. “I’m pretty sure he already knows about meddling siblings.” 

The three of them walk back to the SUV that’ll take them back to the hotel. When Nick gets in, he sees his two scarves waiting for him on his seat. The one he wore this morning and the one he bought when he was with Kyle. He smiles a little to himself and wraps the latter one around his neck. 

“So you actually like him?” Joe says. 

“Maybe,” Nick says, settling back in his seat. “So don’t scare him away.”

“Should have given him a kiss,” Kevin says. 

“No,” Joe says, his voice going serious enough that Nick looks at him. “When we got here, we went to one of those magic people, you know, the ones that can see your future—”

“Oh my god,” Nick groans. At least _he_ just went to a magic trick show. 

“And she said I needed to watch out for strange people appearing!” Joe says. “So that means Kyle!”

“That’s just normal life advice,” Nick says. 

The car’s engine starts and it starts to take them back through the service roads behind the festival. Nick can see the bright lights of the festival in the distance, promising even more activities for the evening. Today’s nighttime event is apparently geared towards kids: a costume contest, pumpkin carving, and a special deal on carnival ride tickets. It’s something that sounds fun, but is best to avoid, since more crowds means a greater likelihood of getting recognized. Tomorrow night’s event will be easier to attend.

Maybe he’ll be able to ditch his brothers and go to it with Kyle.

“He did seem like a nice guy yesterday,” Kevin says. “I think Nick will like him.”

“I already like him,” Nick says. “Can we stop talking about this?”

“No,” both of his brothers say at once.

“I mean, he’s nice, and I guess he’s cute too,” Joe says. “But… we’ve spent two nights here now and… this place just feels weird. I swear I saw a ghost in the bathroom mirror this morning, and when I told the server at breakfast, she just asked if I wanted to know what the ghost’s name was. That’s not normal! Living around thousands of ghosts isn’t normal.”

“Whatever,” Nick says. He closes his eyes and thinks about Kyle’s smile. He didn’t take any pictures with him today because he was too nervous to, but tomorrow he wants to take as many pictures as he can, to remember Kyle when he inevitably has to leave.

“I hope this goes somewhere,” he whispers to the glass of his window. He doesn’t want to lose Kyle. He feels too special to lose.


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> day 7: revenge

**I’ve got you.**

_

“Is Kyle—” 

_

Kyle is tired.

**Just relax.**

Kyle blinks slowly. The action feels like it takes an hour to complete, but… but he’s so tired. For a moment, his vision is full of light and color. Bright yellow, too bright…

His body is so tired. It’s hard to think. He sighs and relaxes back into—

__

_“—passed out suddenly.”_

__

__  


**You don’t like sleeping much, do you?**

Kyle feels so relaxed. He never gets this kind of rest. This is so nice.

He feels safe.

Like if he falls asleep, he won’t dream.

**It’s okay. I’m going to take care of you.**

_

“We’re twins.”

_

**You’re wonderful, Kyle. **

There’s some kind of… coldness making its way into the comfort and warmth surrounding Kyle. Something— he frowns and tries to open his eyes.

Lights. Street lamps. This is—

**Let’s not have any of that now. You can trust me.**

Kyle falls asleep.

Or… no, he doesn’t. It’s a long-established habit of his to resist falling asleep as much as he can. He knows that. Falling asleep means—

His head hurts. Kyle struggles to focus on that. Pain. Any physical sensation. 

He should—

Wait.

**Kyle… **

Kyle must be blinking again. He can see… some apartment. Does he recognize it? It’s not—

**You don’t need to be here for this. **

_

“Kyle? What’s—”

_

**Sleep.**

Kyle clings to his headache. His ever-present headache from sleep deprivation.

__

_“I don’t—” _

__

__  


**Little insignificant creature. It wastes its power.**

Kyle tries to move his hand. He thinks it works, but the movement is slow and sluggish.

**I told you to sleep, Kyle.**

Kyle can move his hand. He tries to blink again.

And he sees Geoff, whose face is contorted in—

**You resist more than the last one. I am impressed, but…**

Kyle is swallowed up by darkness. He can still hear— feel— the thing—

**Perfect gifted Kyle.**

**He does not need to see this. **

**This creature…**

**I need its power. **

**I need its eye.**

**More.**

**More.**

**More.**

**So when that bitch appears…**

**More.**

**More.**

**More.**

**More. **

**I will be ready.**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ughhhh formatting


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> day 8: bats

Nick throws the empty takeout container in the hotel trash can. He feels more awake than he really wants to be right now, so he turns off the lights and turns the television on to something boring. As an afterthought, he goes to open the curtains to let some moonlight in.

As he pulls them aside, he sees something flying by. Birds?

No. Bats. A lot of them.

And as Nick squints to follow them with his eyes, a few more appear, flying close enough to see one of them catch a moth.

Nick shakes his head and walks over to his bathroom. “Bats,” he mutters.

Seems typical of this place. It’s already full of ghosts and real, actual magic. Why not have dozens of bats flying around next to his window. Before, Nick was curious why the Happy Halloween Fest was so big in a relatively unknown and obscure place like Dove, but now he can’t imagine any other place hosting the festival. They should rename the city Halloweenville. 

He starts to feel exhaustion creeping into his body as he gets ready for bed. By the time Nick is getting under the sheets, he thinks he’s ready to turn off the television and fall asleep. He’s got his alarm set to give him plenty of time to make himself look good for Kyle tomorrow morning. 

Nick closes his eyes.

He should get coffee on the way. Or… no, Kyle got tea when they got breakfast together the other day. It feels like it’s been so much longer than just two days.

Nick’s wrenched out of his drowsiness by a loud knocking on his door.

“Nick!! Open up! I need to use your bathroom!” 

Nick frowns at the door. “Use your own bathroom, Joe.”

“Mine has a ghost in it,” Joe whines, continuing to knock.

“Use Kevin’s.” 

“Mine has a ghost in it too,” Kevin says. 

Now the knocking is doubled. Tripled, actually, because it sounds like Kevin is knocking with both of his hands. Nick pulls a pillow over his head and groans. 

“Just ask the ghost to move,” he says loudly.

“I tried doing that and she started crying,” Kevin says. “And the lights got dim. I’m not a ghostbuster, I don’t want to talk to a ghost tonight. I just want to brush my teeth.”

Nick groans again but rolls slowly out of his bed. He shuffles over to the door and opens it. Joe and Kevin both rush past him, reaching his bathroom at the same time and shoving into each other as they immediately try to steal the sink from each other.

“What’s your ghost doing, Joe?” Nick asks, because he’s unfortunately awake again now.

“He’s standing right in the door. I can’t walk in without, you know, walking through him. It seems rude to do that. He won’t answer me when I try to talk to him.”

Nick crosses his arms and shuts his door.

“Guess we’ve got an answer for if anyone ever asks us what the weirdest place we’ve stayed at is,” Nick says, mostly to himself. A haunted hotel with ghosts that block off bathrooms. At least it’s more of an inconvenience than a problem.

“Hey Nick,” Kevin says, sticking his head through the open doorway of the bathroom. “Just in case the ghost girl’s not gone when I go back—”

“No,” Nick says. “This is my room. I’m not sharing.”

“How come you get the only room that’s not haunted?” Joe complains. 

Nick shrugs as he goes back to his bed. “Not my problem.” He sits back down on his bed and directs his attention to the television screen. The boring-looking fish documentary from earlier has ended and now it’s on something about bats, funnily enough. He shifts a bit on the bed. It’s not as comfortable as before. Sorta feels like there’s something hard inside the mattress.

Nick really hopes it’s not a skeleton.

“The staff said all the ghosts are harmless, right?” He says, moving around more. Whatever he’s lying on is horribly uncomfortable. Did he throw something on the bed when he was rushing to get ready earlier in the morning?

Nick sits up and feels around behind him. His hand finds something long and hard and smooth.

“Oh no,” he says softly.

It’d better not be a bone.

He brings it around so he can see it in the light of the television. Nick stares at it in shock for a few long seconds. He turns it in his hand, just to be sure he’s looking at what he thinks he’s looking at.

Well, it’s definitely not a bone.

“What is— is this yours? Kevin? Joe?” 

“What?” Joe says, still inside the bathroom.

Nick switches on the light. This has got to be some kind of dumb prank. Kevin and Joe emerge and Nick holds up the machete so they can see it.

“Which one of you put this in my bed?”

Joe and Kevin exchange genuinely confused looks. “Uh. It wasn’t me?” Kevin says. Joe shakes his head.

Nick frowns. Could it be someone on their crew? Or the hotel staff? But what would be the point of leaving a (thankfully sheathed) machete in his bed? Is it a gift? Is it just to confuse him?

Nick sets the machete down on the bedside table. “Well, I’m not going to deal with this tonight. Hey, once you’re done, get out.”

Joe and Kevin complain, but eventually they both leave to return to their own ghost-infested rooms. Nick reaches to turn off the light, but for some reason, picks up the machete again. He brings it closer, so he can examine it better. It’s actually very beautiful: the handle is an old but polished wood piece, dyed a very dark red. Nick finds himself unsheathing it and drawing the blade out.

“Oh,” he whispers.

If the handle is beautiful, then the blade is absolutely stunning. The dark metal was clearly folded repeatedly during the forging process, creating a swirling pattern throughout. And the blade is dark… maybe it’s just the yellow light from his lamp, but Nick thinks it has a slight red tint to it.

He carefully puts the sheath back on and puts it back on the table. 

Even if he’s got it because of a prank, it’s a cool machete. He’s keeping it.

Nick turns off the television, and then he turns off the bedside light. His mind remains on the mystery of the machete for a few minutes more, until he slowly begins to fall asleep.


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> day 9: ghosts

Awsten wakes up with a jolt in Jawn’s car. He gasps loudly, causing Jawn to jump and pull over to the side of the road. Fuck, he’s— he’s in Jawn’s car, it’s dark— something was— 

Kyle.

“Awsten?” Jawn leans over to look at him. “You finally woke up? You were out like the dead—”

“Kyle,” Awsten says, grabbing at his seatbelt to unfasten it. They’re at least half an hour’s drive from the fairgrounds. Fuck. He doesn’t take off his seatbelt, but he squirms around to see if they can make a U-turn right where they are. 

“Kyle? What about him?” Jawn says.

“He’s— we’ve got to get back,” Awsten says. “He’s possessed, or some shit. I was too late.” 

Jawn doesn’t move the car. “Are you sure? He was acting normal when he brought you back.”

Awsten’s chest tightens with dread. “He what? What did he do?” As soon as Kyle— or… that thing that’s possessing him— taunted him, Awsten must have gotten knocked out. Some supernatural psychic bullshit. And then he woke up here, in Jawn’s car. 

“He— I was helping Scott pack up and then— it was still the middle of the show— Kyle came back with some security dude helping him carry you. Said you passed out. Me and Scott got you in my car, and I left.”

Awsten’s eye twitches. “Jawn. You’re a fucking idiot.”

Jawn holds up his hands. “Hey! You texted me that Kyle was fine. I thought… I don’t know, I was worried the shadow thing was trying to get to you.”

Awsten groans. “Fuck. Well, I’m fine. For now, anyway. We need to get back there. I don’t know how I’m supposed to get that thing out of Kyle, but we’ve got to try—”

“Awsten, the show’s over,” Jawn interrupts, pointing at the clock display in the car. “It’s been over an hour. Kyle could be anywhere by now.”

Awsten leans back in his seat, grabbing at his temples in frustration. “So we’re back to our first problem.” Kyle on a normal day can avoid Awsten like a fucking ghost. Although Awsten can find ghosts (and Kyle) by astral projecting, but that’s not the point. Point is, Awsten can’t even guess what that shadow fuck is going to do in Kyle’s body.

Jawn is watching him. The noise of the car idling is normally soothing, but it just reminds Awsten that they’re wasting time. Kyle could be _anywhere_.

Awsten takes out his phone and tries calling him.

Kyle’s phone isn’t even fucking on. 

“Guess I should have expected that,” he mutters.

“Did the— did he say anything to you?” Jawn says. 

“He— it— said… well, actually, I don’t know how much of that was it pretending to be Kyle,” Awsten says. He thinks back over the conversation. If it was possessing Kyle the whole time, then it really knows him. Uncomfortably well. Well enough to fool Awsten, at least at first. Awsten feels sick. 

“It said it knew I was the smart one.”

An uneasy silence falls between the two of them.

Jawn looks as horrified as Awsten feels. 

Fuck, Awsten doesn’t even know what… The implications are terrifying. How long has this thing been watching them? Clearly it knows enough about Kyle and his mannerisms to fool Awsten. But it’s such a powerful thing. How has Awsten never seen it when he’s astral projected in the past?

He scrolls on his contacts to text Scott. 

_HEY DO YOU KNOW WHAT KYLES DOING TONIGHT?_

Scott answers right away, but it’s disappointing.

_idk. As long as hes back tomorrow doesnt matter_

_hope he’s getting some sleep tho he was tired af ths morning_

_think hes banging nick jonas? lol_

“I hope he’s not with Nick Jonas,” Awsten says. He can’t think of much worse than some monster pretending to be Kyle while hitting on Nick Jonas (badly). No, he can actually think of worse things now. Not like he can get any confirmation on any of his fears, since Kyle’s fucking possessed and nobody knows where he is. 

He looks back over at Jawn in hopes of getting some kind of advice for what to do next. Who to call, where to go. Meanwhile, Scott texts again.

_jk kyle moves slow he wouldnt do that lol_

Awsten breathes a sigh of relief. Right. 

“I don’t know anyone with seer powers,” Jawn says. “To look for him. And the only people who can do anything even close to finding… you know, something like that shadow thing. That’s you and maybe Otto.”

Awsten scrolls to Otto’s contact. His finger hovers over the screen. “Otto’s not going to know anything,” he says. 

“He’d want to know,” Jawn points out. “He might be able to help.”

Awsten looks back at Jawn. He doubts any of Otto’s crystals and candles and herbs will do much to help this kind of problem. But… Jawn’s got a point, that it’ll be better with more people looking out for Kyle. At the very least, his bandmates should probably know that their lead singer slash lead guitarist slash frontman is kind of possessed by something seriously creepy and might be a bit different at the show the next morning.

Awsten tries calling Otto.

To his surprise, Otto picks up.

“Awsten?”

“Otto!” Awsten says. “Have you seen Kyle?”

“Uh… not since this morning?”

Fuck. Awsten wasn’t really hoping that Otto had seen him, but he feels discouraged anyway. 

“Why?”

“He’s possessed by something,” Awsten says.

“What? I thought you guys were like, malicious-spirit-proof.”

“We are,” Awsten says. “But this thing— it’s like a monster. I saw it the other day in the astral world and it’s like, fucking huge.”

“Shit,” Otto says. There’s some faint noise in the background of the call. “Do you want me to try and— how can I help? He’s— I mean, does he know what’s going on? Kyle?”

Awsten feels like crap. “I don’t know. I don’t think so?” He has way more questions and concerns than answers. “I’m going to try and look for his presence soon. As soon as me and Jawn get back to my place.” He nods at Jawn. Jawn pulls the car back onto the road and starts driving again.

“Do you want some help? I can come over,” Otto says. “I’m just at the store— I can go back. I’m at Geoff’s place tonight and I can get him—”

“No, it’s okay,” Awsten says. 

“I don’t— I wanna try and help,” Otto says.

Awsten looks out the window at the darkened houses and street lamps they’re passing. He has no idea what they’re facing. He has no idea what’s going on. Before he involves anyone else, even Jawn, he wants to try and get answers by himself. 

“Get to the stage early tomorrow,” he tells Otto. “Kyle… Kyle should show up. If he doesn’t— if whatever’s possessing him doesn’t show up—”

“Then Kyle’s going to kick its ass,” Otto says confidently.

Awsten nods. “Yeah.”

“I hope he’s alright,” Otto says.

Awsten feels so sick and tense. He tries to sound more sure than he feels when he says, “He’ll be alright.”

He hangs up and leans back against the seat. Jawn glances over at him.

“We’ll find him,” he says.

Awsten thinks back to the dark smile on Kyle’s face. The laugh. The taunt. How easily the thing pretended to be Kyle. How Awsten had no idea until too much time had passed. 

“There was nothing I could have done,” he says in a hollow voice. 

Jawn pulls up into the driveway and stops the car. “Maybe,” he says, getting out and walking around to open Awsten’s door. “But there’s a lot we can do right now. That thing is too big to hide in the astral-spirit world. Wherever it is, Kyle’s there too. If it’s possessing Kyle, then it can only move as fast as he does.”

Awsten opens the front door for Jawn and they turn on the lights as they walk in. “You think Kyle knows what’s going on?” Awsten says. “Or is it like… like he’s sleepwalking?”

Kyle and sleepwalking is a bad combination. 

Awsten’s hands clench into fists. “Do you think… do you think this thing got him because of his ability? Because of his visions?”

Jawn freezes, horror growing on his face. “I— fuck, the purifying stuff doesn’t work on you guys.”

Awsten sighs. “Get it anyway. It can’t hurt.”

Jawn rushes up the stairs. 

As soon as he’s out of sight, Awsten sprints to the living room. He sits down in the closest armchair and closes his eyes, forcing himself into the familiar state of concentration. He’s only got a minute or two before Jawn comes down and realizes he started astral projecting without him.

Breathe in.

Breathe out.

And Awsten slides easily into the astral-spirit world.

He gets to his feet and looks all around him. The astral-spirit world is always strange, but in a way that Awsten’s come to understand. It’s full of energies and echoes and vague spiritual figures. The landscape changes constantly, but if Awsten focuses, it can reflect the physical world, showing him where psychic and supernatural presences exist in the world around him. It’s an exhausting task, but it’s his best chance at finding Kyle right now.

The world shifts around him, slowly building up shapes that Awsten can recognize. But it’s not the house. 

It’s the stage back at the festival. Awsten’s standing front and center and the dark shadow— huge as a mountain— is looming down over him. He’s frozen in place as he looks up at it. He can't even make out any sort of form to it; it's too big. The astral-spirit world around Awsten goes dark and still as the thing leans down towards Awsten.

Hundreds of eyes appear across the face of the shadow. Awsten's breath is caught somewhere in his chest as fear overwhelms him.

**It’s nearly midnight, Awsten. Time for you and that other one to sleep.**


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> day 10: skeletons

“I’ll only be, like, thirty minutes,” Otto says on his way out the door. “I’ll get the chips and the juice and… I don’t know, maybe something nice. Chocolate? I’ll get some chocolate.”

Geoff catches the door before it closes. “Sure you don’t want me to come with?” he says.

Otto turns around, walking backwards. “No, no, you just stay here. If we both go, it’ll end up taking like two hours and we’ll buy more stuff than we need.”

Geoff laughs. “Alright. Thirty minutes?”

“Or less!” Otto says. “Or it’s free!”

It’s definitely going to be longer than thirty minutes. But Geoff smiles and waves as Otto leaves, and then he shuts the door and goes to clean up the kitchen. It’s not too much of a mess, but that’s only because Otto wasn’t the one cooking tonight. As he’s putting the leftovers into the refrigerator, he spots the little box of cookies Tabitha gave them earlier in the week.

Geoff takes out the box and looks inside. And then he bursts into laughter. Otto’s eaten all but two of the cookies. There were a dozen when Tabitha brought them in to work, telling Geoff he and Otto could share them. Geoff had forgotten about them that day, and Otto’s clearly had more than his share already.

Geoff takes the box out of the refrigerator and starts towards the living room. He stops short when the doorbell rings.

“Otto?” he says. “Did you forget something? Your keys?”

He looks through the peephole and raises an eyebrow when he sees who it is on the other side. “Kyle?” Geoff says as he opens the door, perplexed. “What’s up? What are you doing here?”

Kyle offers a small smile. “Can’t sleep,” he says. “And Awsten’s being… Awsten. You mind if I hang out here for a little bit? I promise I won’t make it weird, or—”

“No, of course!” Geoff says, moving aside so Kyle can come in. “It’s not— it’s not weird at all.” 

It _has_ been kind of weird though, how Kyle’s been avoiding spending time alone with him and Otto since they got more serious about being together two months ago. This moment is probably the first time he’s been at Otto and Geoff’s now-shared apartment since. Geoff hates the awkwardness, because the three of them used to be such close friends. They still are, but… but it’s more complicated now. Otto and Kyle had split up on mutual terms, and the three of them were fine even when Geoff and Otto had gotten together a few months after the split.

It’s just… recently. Recently, Kyle’s just not talking about how he feels. Geoff needs to sit down with Kyle and Otto and try and get Kyle to talk about what’s going on, so they can fix their friendship.

Maybe tonight’s the night. Geoff’s feeling optimistic.

“Sorry Awsten’s being Awsten,” Geoff says. He leads Kyle into the living room and offers him a cookie. It’s decorated with a grinning cartoon skeleton. 

“Thanks,” Kyle says.

“You can always come over here… whenever,” Geoff says, sitting down on the couch opposite the armchair Kyle’s sat in. 

Kyle isn’t looking at him. In fact, he seems to be staring off into space— or maybe he’s just looking at their furniture. Either way, silence fills the space between them. Fuck. It’s getting awkward. 

“Where’s Otto?” Kyle says, taking a bite of the cookie.

“He went to the store,” Geoff says, leaning back with some relief. Kyle’s asking about Otto. Could be for any number of reasons. But first, Geoff wants to come up with another method of making Kyle feel more welcome. Talk about the band, maybe? The festival? 

“He’ll be back soon,” Geoff continues. “You know how he gets when he’s grocery shopping though. Could be—”

Kyle’s face tightens into a pained grimace. Fuck. Damn it. Geoff didn’t mean to— fuck.

“I mean—”

“It’s okay.”

“No, I just—”

“Geoff, it’s okay. It’s funny.” Kyle offers him a halfhearted smile that tugs at Geoff’s heart.

Geoff is ruining this so badly. And he imagines things will only get worse when Otto comes back. Somehow, this situation is bound to turn into a horribly stiff attempt at being normal friends hanging out. Geoff pulls at one of his long sleeves anxiously. Maybe he should go get his phone from where it’s charging in the bedroom and text Otto a quick warning. 

Kyle finishes the cookie and sighs. “Geoff… it’s okay. The whole— you and Otto. I told you it was okay. It’s not even my business; you’re both adults and you can do whatever you want.”

“Kyle—”

“Yeah, it kinda hurt when you guys moved in together— but it’s fine. You guys are happy, and I’m happy for you.” Kyle looks at Geoff. “At least… that’s what Kyle’s been telling himself for two months now.”

Geoff blinks. Did… did Kyle just refer to himself in third person? His eyes are slightly narrowed and it’s kind of creepy. 

“Kyle? I don’t—” 

“He’s been—” Kyle stops speaking and stands up. He moves to sit on the same couch as Geoff, just a foot apart. He lifts a hand, and then lowers it, looking slightly amused by his own movement. 

“Are you feeling okay?” Geoff says. He can put aside the sudden confession about him and Otto. Kyle’s got his sleeping issues, and lack of sleep occasionally makes his filter disappear. “How’s the— how are your dreams? You, uh...” Geoff falters, taken aback by Kyle’s proximity, body language, and intense gaze. He’s being weirder than normal. Geoff can’t think of a single occasion when Kyle was so...

Kyle sighs. “Geoff. Normally, I don’t touch anyone so close to my Knights. No matter how much they deserve it. Doing so causes too many problems. But Kyle has been so… sad lately. It pains me to see him like that. I was already planning on coming out and doing this so… well, it’s unfortunate Otto isn’t here as well. But no matter. There’s always tomorrow. One step at a time. I should thank you for opening the door, Geoff. You want to fix things? I’ll fix things. Just, not for you. This will be good for me and him. Me… and Kyle.”

Geoff stares at Kyle in shock. This sounds like a monologue in a fucking horror movie. 

“What… Kyle— what?” he whispers.

There’s no trace of humor or teasing in Kyle’s face. “My name… is Midnight.” Kyle says, and Kyle’s sclera floods with dark blue. 

Geoff’s eyes widen in horror. “Are you possessed?” he gasps. Kyle can’t be possessed. Neither he nor Awsten can even get touched by a ghost. They’ve tried so many times, just for the fun of it, and it’s never worked… but then what’s happening now?

Kyle reaches out and puts his hand against Geoff’s chest. The point of contact is as cold as ice. Geoff is suddenly frozen, unable to move, unable to breathe. 

“I’m not an evil spirit,” Kyle—Midnight says. “Evil is such a… human concept. I like to think I’m above such things. Beyond them, even. Then again, I’ve spent so much time in the Knight family that, perhaps, I’m adopting their little quirks and personalities.” Midnight chuckles. The icy sensation is slowly spreading through Geoff’s chest. His head is growing warm, like it does when he uses his levitation powers for too long. 

Geoff feels like he’s choking. He feels like he’s about to burst from— from something, but the pressure just continues to build.

He’s also getting lightheaded from lack of air.

“Now I don’t want you to run off telling Otto and Awsten about this,” Midnight says. The warmth in his head is gone, and Geoff would be shivering if he could move. “So you’re going to forget about this. As far as you know… your psychic powers just… mysteriously vanished without a trace. Goodnight, Geoff. And thank you for your hospitality.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> originally this part was going to be a whole lot spookier (and possibly from kyle's pov), but max helped me figure out a more interesting way to go about it. also thank u so much to anat for coming up with midnight's name


	11. Chapter 11

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> day 11: threats
> 
> Im changing this days theme

Nick likes his sleep. He should be getting plenty of rest this week, honestly, and he was looking forward to it. It’s supposed to be a fairly easy time for them: just the festival, no interviews, no appearances, no expectations. Even their hotel (and the entire city) being mildly haunted didn’t have much of an effect on his sleep the night before.

And yet…

Nick’s awake far earlier than he wants to be awake. His mind immediately latches onto Kyle, and for a little while, it’s nice. Thinking about the day prior, thinking about the music he heard, daydreaming about taking Kyle to all his favorite places back home and impressing him so much that they start going out as actual boyfriends… But then he remembers that moment during the show. Kyle and the bass player.

Either out of curiosity or restlessness, Nick looks up December’s Tragedy on Twitter. And then on YouTube. And then on Instagram. He starts looking for fan blogs, but the first few he stumbles across give him exactly the information he’s fearing, and he stops.

December’s Tragedy’s bass player is named Otto, and apparently he and Kyle dated. For two years. Nick tries not to let the new information daunt him: after all, Kyle didn’t mention Otto once when they were together. And Kyle definitely seemed to be into Nick. 

So… they’re just exes. Who are still in the same band. A cautious glimpse into the YouTube comments on Candy (the first song Nick heard December’s Tragedy play) confirms it’s about Otto.

Nick puts his face in his hands.

“That was a mistake,” he says to himself. 

At least he knows the names of the other band members now. There’s Kyle and Otto, obviously, and then Asher’s the drummer and Brandon’s the other guitarist. And Nick also knows Scott, basically the band’s one-man crew and friend. The band’s got a pretty good following, and it seems like there are a lot of fans who are eagerly waiting for the album to be finished.

Besides learning that, his internet research has taken up enough time that he can get ready to leave for the festival now and he won’t be waiting around too long for Kyle to show up. If December’s Tragedy shows up at the same time as they did the previous day, then he’ll be getting there right as they’re unpacking their stuff. Hopefully.

He climbs out of bed and catches sight of the machete lying on the table beside his bed.

Right… he forgot about that.

It’s probably best to leave that. Nick still has no idea how it ended up in his fucking bed, but it’s a mystery he can work out later. Hell, maybe he could even tell Kyle about it. Either Kyle will laugh or maybe he’ll have some magic explanation for machetes turning up in hotel beds. 

Nick smiles as he thinks about it. He grabs the alpaca scarf he got the previous day and hopes Kyle will recognize it.

Nick couldn’t have left at a more perfect time. All of the members of December’s Tragedy are gathered around their van parked in the backstage area, unpacking their gear. Nick waves at them, getting their attention.

“Nick,” Kyle says excitedly, stepping away from his bandmates. “Hey, I got something for you—”

“I got something for you too,” Nick says. He holds out the cup of tea he got on the way. He had to guess what Kyle would like, and he’s still a little nervous that he might have guessed wrong, but Kyle’s smile is brilliant as he takes a sip.

“Thanks,” Kyle says. “It’s perfect. Oh, and I got you some danishes— there’s donuts too, but I got those for the guys. If you want some, go ahead, but they’re not all that special. Ash and Scott and Otto and Brandon don’t care about food as long as it’s free. They’re in the van, whenever you’re hungry.” 

Nick’s not terribly hungry though. Instead, he’s feeling something else. His hands itch to close the distance between them and— and touch Kyle or something. He looks so perfect, wrapped up in a thick oversized hoodie with a faded gray beanie on his head and matching gloves with the fingers messily cut off. He’s just so… genuine. So cute. Nick wants to hold him and maybe kiss him, _so badly_. 

Nick makes some kind of noise in his throat, causing Kyle to tilt his head in confusion. 

“Well, uh,” Kyle says. “I’m gonna go help set up. Thanks for the tea, Nick.”

“I can help too, if you want,” Nick offers. “Carrying stuff. Since I’m here.”

Kyle laughs. “It’s alright, you’re a guest. Besides, Scott’s good at it. He’s actually telekinetic, but only when he’s touching something. So he can carry anything, no matter how heavy it is. Makes it easy to move equipment around.”

Nick blinks. “Are you serious?” 

Kyle nods, still smiling. “Nick, you watched a magician with telekinesis walk upside down yesterday. I told you Dove’s full of people with psychic powers.”

Yeah, but he’s being so much more blunt about it now. The previous two days, Kyle didn’t talk about psychic stuff as much as he did about ghosts. Maybe Kyle was just stressed the other days and he's feeling better now. Nick’s mind wanders on that topic as Kyle drinks his tea.

“Do you have psychic powers?” he asks, bracing himself for confirmation, denial, or a dismissal. Kyle certainly doesn't have to answer, but the thought is eating at him.

Kyle nods, with a slightly sly look on his face. “I’ll tell you about it later. Are you going to watch from the same place?”

“Yeah,” Nick says. Before he can think better of it, he adds, “Unless you want me on the stage with you.”

He’s such a fucking idiot.

Kyle laughs out loud, but he looks like he’s blushing. Nick’s definitely feeling a bit warm too, and he hopes the scarf hides it from Kyle’s view.

“Maybe tomorrow, we can, like, come out and sing a verse on each other’s sets?” Kyle says. “If your brothers are okay with it, of course! I mean… I’d love to… but I’ll have to talk it over with the guys.”

Nick manages to not make more of a fool out of himself as he agrees and Kyle finally returns to help his band set up. Soon, they’re soundchecking their instruments, and Nick’s about to go up and take his spot again. But before he can get up onto the stage, someone stops him by standing in his way.

Kyle’s twin. And someone else. Both of them are out of breath, like they’ve been running.

“Fuck,” the twin says. “We’re late, but— at least he’s not going anywhere right now.”

“Hi,” Nick says. “You’re Kyle’s brother, right?”

“Yeah, I’m Awsten,” he says. “And listen, you’ve got to trust me when I say that you need to stay away from Kyle right now.”

Oh.

Oh, Nick’s getting the shovel talk. He hasn’t even had a proper date with Kyle yet. But at least this isn’t as awkward as what Joe and Kevin were doing with Kyle last night. Nick can handle a concerned twin brother.

“I appreciate you looking out for your family, but Kyle—” Nick starts, but the other guy with Awsten cuts him off.

“Oh my god, Awsten, you sound like— no, that’s not what we mean. What Awsten’s trying to say is that Kyle’s possessed right now. Like, by something that’s literally evil. And it’s literally dangerous to be around him, since this thing is unpredictable.”

Well, Nick certainly wasn’t expecting that. He sighs. “Possessed? Kyle’s acting totally normal.”

“Not really,” Awsten says. “It’s close, but he's not the same. Last night there was definitely a change in how he acts.”

Nick wants to shoot down this whole thing as totally fantastical, but Kyle’s earlier comment about psychics reverberates in his mind. Okay. Okay, he can at least listen. For a couple of minutes, since December’s Tragedy is still soundchecking, but that’s not going to last forever and Nick really wants to watch Kyle perform again.

Awsten’s friend speaks up again, “Listen… Awsten and Kyle are both like, weirdly powerful psychics. Awsten can see into, like, the spirit world, and Kyle has these psychic visions when he dreams. There’s plenty of other psychics with kinda similar powers, but nobody’s powers are as… I don’t know how to say it.”

“Basically, what Jawn’s trying to say is, me and Kyle are immune to other psychic bullshit and ghosts and stuff because our abilities are stronger,” Awsten says. “Way stronger. And that's why this possession shit is so bad. It shouldn’t be possible for any normal spirit or psychic to control Kyle.”

“A couple days ago, me and Awsten saw this…” Jawn hesitates. “This huge shadow looking for Kyle in the spirit world. And last night it took him over.”

Nick lets their words sink in. It’s kind of too much to believe. While he’s on board with the mass amount of ghosts in Dove, the thought that it's full of psychics is still… a bit weird.

Awsten groans. “Look, I’ll prove it to you. I’ll astral project with you and you can see—”

“Don’t,” Jawn says. “Last night when you did that, the thing knocked you out.”

“I’m not going to let it do the same thing twice,” Awsten huffs.

The two look like they’re going to continue arguing. They’re losing Nick’s attention. And a catchy guitar riff playing over the speakers steals the rest of Nick’s attention. He walks around Awsten and Jawn, wanting to get to the side of the stage as quickly as possibly, but Awsten stubbornly follows after him.

“I’ll prove it to you after the show,” he says loudly, over the sound of the music.

“Sure,” Nick says. Whatever, he can spare a few minutes while Kyle is meeting fans. 

He puts Awsten and the idea of Kyle being possessed out of his mind— which is really ridiculous, because Kyle’s just as electric as he was the day before on the stage, playing his guitar and singing like a rockstar. The band finishes their first song, which is a really cute one called Shooting Star, then they do Lifesaver again, followed by another emotional song called My Angel, a pop punk-sounding song called Game Plan, and then they finish with Look The Part again. 

Nick is sure that he’s feeling what fans feel when they watch his band— or just any band they love. He can’t take his eyes off Kyle, even when he goes to lean against Otto and the two sing lyrics about love into the same microphone. He wants to bottle up this high, this emotion, and keep it inside him forever. He sings along, softly, to the words he’s picked up from watching their music videos and their previous performance.

Kyle’s a magnet. He’s a supernova. He’s a force like nothing else. Nick wants to see him on a bigger stage. He wants to reach out and touch him and feel all the energy Kyle’s pouring into playing his music for the crowd of fans who came early to get a good place. The crowd seems bigger than the day before, or maybe that’s just Nick’s imagination. They don’t form a circle pit, like Look The Part deserves, but they do jump and scream and cheer loudly, and for this moment, it’s perfect.

Nick is smiling so hard his face hurts when Kyle takes off his guitar and starts towards him. Kyle’s expression changes suddenly, and for a moment, Nick’s thrown. But then,

“Hi Awsten,” Kyle says, and,

“Kyle,” Awsten says icily. “That's some good acting. Was he actually—”

“Hold that thought,” Kyle says. 

“No, I don’t think I will,” Awsten says. “Look, whatever you are, you’re—”

“Come on, Kyle!” the drummer— Asher says, grabbing Kyle’s shoulder and dragging him towards the edge of the stage. “The fans are lining up! Can’t keep them waiting.”

Asher and Brandon both shepherd Kyle away, ignoring Awsten’s very loud protests. Nick’s left on the stage, still out of sight. He’s not sure what to do. 

“Nick!”

“Nick!”

Oh great.

His brothers are here.

Nick sighs and leaves the stage, with Awsten following him for some reason. Joe and Kevin find him as soon as he’s in the backstage area. They both look way too carefree, but then again, they haven’t been dealing with the roller coaster of ups and downs from watching Kyle perform and having Awsten insist that Kyle’s possessed by something.

Awsten’s still here. He looks serious when he comes close to Nick again.

“Look, I know it all sounds crazy. But I swear— look, I care about Kyle, alright? He’s an idiot, but he knows how to take care of himself. Mostly. This is something— I don’t think he even knows what’s going on.” Awsten groans and rubs frantically at his forehead. “I just— let me prove this to you. Cause I know Kyle— the real Kyle— would never forgive himself if some evil thing messed with you guys while using his body. He… he loves you guys. He _likes_ you. Nick. Don’t tell him I told you that.”

Nick stares at Awsten in shock. That’s… kind of intensely honest. And Awsten doesn’t seem like he’s out to embarrass Kyle, or fuck with him or anything. He’s concerned. And he’s saying all of this, going so far, just to make Nick believe him. 

What the hell, he’s seen ghosts, he’s seen a telekinetic guy. It’s not that unreasonable that what Awsten’s talking about can happen.

“Okay,” he says. “Alright, I’ll do… whatever. You can do it.”

“What are we doing?” Kevin says.

“What’s going on?” Joe says.

“Astral projection,” Awsten says, fidgeting with his hands. “I’m going to show you exactly how bad the thing possessing Kyle is.”


	12. Chapter 12

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> day 12: tricks and traps

Jawn has been watching Kyle meet December’s Tragedy fans for over half an hour while Awsten astral projects with the Jonas Brothers. He’s seriously hoping they won’t have a repeat of last night, when Jawn came down with his purifying stuff only to find Awsten in another shadow monster induced sleep. 

Yeah, technically this thing has put Awsten to sleep _twice_ to keep him from meddling in its plans. And it could very easily happen again. 

Jawn looks back over his shoulder, but there’s still no sign of Awsten coming back. And he knows Kyle— or the shadow monster— is aware that he’s there to keep an eye on him. 

This sucks. 

They didn’t get a single answer last night, either. As hard as Jawn tried, he couldn’t wake up Awsten. His own attempts at research got him nothing. He’s seen what ghosts and normal malicious presences look like in the astral-spirit world. Whatever’s got a hold of Kyle is something else entirely. Some extremely powerful entity.

“Jawn,” Kyle says, bringing Jawn’s attention back to him. There are still a handful of December’s Tragedy fans waiting around, but they’re excitedly gathered around Asher for the moment.

“Yeah?” Jawn says. He stays where he is. He’s maybe forty feet away from Kyle. It’s a safe distance, he thinks.

“What’s Awsten doing?” Kyle asks. 

Jawn frowns. “Why are you asking me? Don’t you know already? This morning when he woke up, he said you saw him right away last night, when he…”

He stops talking as Kyle walks away from his band. Nervous, Jawn takes a few steps backwards. Kyle continues closer, looking… well, looking like the Kyle that Jawn knows. Perpetually exhausted, but with good back posture. It’s making Jawn lose his mind. As harmless as Kyle looks now, in the daylight, he can’t help but remember how normal he also seemed last night. Jawn was completely fooled. He didn’t— _nobody_ noticed anything strange. Not until it was too late. 

Now, there’s enough of a crowd that— that the monster shouldn’t be able to do anything. Or, if Jawn collapses suddenly, someone else will notice. And Jawn’s not psychic, so maybe it won’t go after him anyway. He’s not putting too much faith in that possibility.

Kyle finally stops a short distance from him, and puts his hands in his pockets with a thoughtful look on his face. It’s a familiar Kyle action. But it’s creepy, knowing it’s not really him. 

“Yeah, he’s trying to tiptoe around my presence,” Kyle says. His tone goes cold and his sclera go dark. Jawn freezes, not sure if it’s from the monster’s energy or from his own fear. Fuck. He’s so fucked.

“Awsten’s power really is special, isn’t it?” the monster says slowly. “I considered using him for this… but then, a few nights ago, Kyle had a dream. Something he couldn’t possibly understand, but I did. So I had to take him. There’s something of the utmost importance to me… something I need to prepare for… and Jawn, I will stop at nothing to finish it. Kyle is the key for that. He can see what I need him to see. And a little more…”

Is nobody else hearing this? Jawn tears his gaze away from Kyle to look around him frantically. To his horror, he sees that the world around him has slowed down impossibly, fading in color and sound and light. It’s like he’s been thrown into a black-and-white movie, playing at half speed, nearly soundless. It’s nothing like astral projecting with Awsten. It’s terrifying. He can move his own body just fine, but his surroundings are ebbing away and being replaced with nothing but faint shadows.

“What’s going on?” he whispers, looking back at Kyle. Kyle is only thing Jawn can see right now that has color. He’s still the same distance away as before, but that doesn’t provide Jawn any comfort anymore.

The monster’s clearly in control of this. 

There’s nothing Jawn could have done.

Hell, is there anything even Awsten could have done? Anyone Jawn knows?

No. Definitely not.

“I love Awsten very dearly,” Kyle muses, cutting through Jawn’s panic again. “He’s a very clever one. He’s always impressed me, and one day… I look forward to exploring his power for myself. With how resourceful and smart he is, I don’t doubt he’ll figure some things out, given enough time. But unfortunately, I’m not interested in spending my time playing with him. I need him to do something for me…”

Too late, Jawn tries to yell for someone. For Otto and the band. For Geoff, hanging out in the back of the tent a little way away. For Awsten, who _must_ be on his way by now. For anyone.

But his voice is stuck in his throat.

“I just need to give him the right incentive. And you— oh. There’s another.”

Jawn whirls his head around, desperate hope filling his chest. There is indeed someone running at him, but Jawn can hardly make out any features. Dark blue shadows rush around Jawn like he’s suddenly in the middle of a tornado, and they sweep up the other person as well.


	13. Chapter 13

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> day 13: candy

Before today, Nick just assumed astral projection was like meditating. Or… meditating while visualizing space and aliens, or something like that. The thing that Awsten Knight does with him and Kevin is nothing like that.

While sitting down in a relatively quiet area behind the scenes, Awsten had taken hold of him and Kevin, explaining that he needed a physical link to them so they wouldn’t get lost. Moments later, Nick felt himself being pulled— a strange sudden pressure in his chest and limbs followed immediately by a sensation of weightlessness.

And when he opened his eyes, he was in a place straight out of a fantasy. 

The appearance of astral-spirit world makes Nick think of those pictures of nebulas in space, but it’s also full of faintly glowing human figures passing through like— well, like ghosts. Some of the figures don’t even resemble people, and they appear and disappear like twinkling stars. Shapes and shadows drift in and out of focus, some of them with recognizable forms like buildings and cars, and some of them too vague to discern. There’s no smells in the world, but there are definitely a lot of noises. Voices, whispers, echoes of something that could be music, and underneath it all, soft vibrations that travel through him in a weirdly comforting way.

Yeah, he’s believing in all that magic and ghosts and psychic stuff now. 

“We shouldn’t stay in here too long,” Awsten says, still holding onto Kevin and Nick. His voice is clear, but there’s a slight echo afterwards. “I don’t know if that shadow thing is going to force us out again, but— you won’t want that. Trust me.”

“Yeah, I’m trusting you,” Kevin says, his voice shaky.

“Are all of these bright things ghosts?” Nick says, reaching out and trying to touch one as it passes by.

“No,” Awsten says. “Not all of them. All the things in here are psychic bodies of some kind. Ghosts, psychics, memories.”

“Some of them are people?” Kevin says, eyes wide.

“Yeah,” Awsten says. A look of concentration takes over his face and, for a moment, a few of the nearest figures take on even more humanoid characteristics. Only for a moment, though, as they return to their initial appearance.

“Do they— can the other psychics feel us?” Nick asks.

“It depends on what their powers are, and whether or not they’re using them,” Awsten says. “Like… Otto is a medium, so he uses crystals and shit to communicate with spirits and stuff. When I’m doing this, we can reach each other.”

“Hm,” Nick says. Otto again. Not only is Otto a sorta-good-looking bass player who dated Kyle long enough for Kyle to write songs about him, but he’s also a psychic, just like Kyle. Nick clears his throat, although the action feels strange in this ghostly world. “You said we should do this fast, right? I believe you about all the ghost stuff now, by the way. So… what’s going on with Kyle?”

Awsten grimaces. “Yeah. Okay, I’m just going to try and get us a quick look. That shadow thing is super freaky.”

The world shifts around them as Awsten appears to concentrate once more. Nick has the feeling that they’re moving, even though he hasn’t taken a single step. 

“Fuck,” Awsten says softly, looking at something behind Nick and Kevin.

Nick turns to look behind him and he almost swears too.

That must be the shadow. 

It’s big— so big that it blocks the view of the world around it. Nick’s been to Denver before, looked up in the face of fourteen thousand foot tall mountains stretching up high into the sky. This is just like that. The shadow is just… so big. It’s a huge, rippling mass of darkness, and as Nick stares, even from a distance, he feels a sense of helplessness grow within him.

“That’s got Kyle?” he whispers.

As if the shadow has heard him, hundreds of large eyes open across its dark surface. The irises all look down at the trio.

“Fuck!” Awsten says. “We’re leaving!”

Nick feels that pulling sensation again, but not before the shadow’s eyes all disappear back into the void and the shadow itself shrinks away at a speed that it shouldn’t be capable of, considering its size. 

He blinks, and he’s back in the physical world again. Awsten lets go of him and slumps over, panting and clutching at his head.

“Are you okay?” Kevin says, reaching out for him. 

Awsten nods, continuing to pant. “Yeah, just— I need some sugar. Doing that too fast kinda drains me. Fuck.” 

Kevin helps Awsten sit up, leaning against the back of the bench they’re all on. After a few seconds, Awsten takes a small handful of Halloween candy— twizzlers— out of his pocket and eats a few of them.

“Good?” Nick says.

“Yeah,” Awsten says. “Okay, let’s go catch up with everyone else.”

The three of them get up and Nick looks around for Joe, who had said he was going to wait for them. He doesn’t see him, but, after checking his phone, he realizes that they have been astral projecting for a longer period of time than he thought. Joe must have wandered off. 

“How are we— is there anything we can do about that shadow?” Nick says as they start walking towards the December’s Tragedy tent. “Like… banish it or exorcise it?”

“It’s not something that _can_ be banished or exorcised,” Awsten mutters. “I don’t— I don’t know what it is, or what it wants, but I don’t think there’s much I can do to stop it. I just… for some reason it wants to use Kyle for whatever it’s doing. And it’s been— it can force people to fall asleep, so it’s got to be connected to dreams in some way. If I can just figure out what it is...”

“How can we help?” Kevin asks. 

Awsten sounds surprised when he says, “You guys want to help? I just showed you that so you’d know to stay away—”

“I want to help Kyle,” Nick says firmly.

“I— look, I have no clue what all that spirit stuff is,” Kevin says. “But if there’s anything we can do…”

Awsten looks down at the ground. “I don’t know. I guess… thanks? You’re not psychics, are you?”

“Not that we know of,” Nick says, glancing at Kevin. 

Kevin shakes his head. “No. I’m not— and Joe’s definitely not.”

“Where is your brother anyway?” Awsten says, lifting his head up and stopping to look around. “I thought he was waiting for us.”

“Probably getting food,” Kevin says. They’re passing a table with a huge bowl of free candy ‘for children’ and Kevin stops to grab some, claiming it’s for his younger brother. The woman at the table doesn’t complain.

The December’s Tragedy table is finally in sight. Nick squints, but… he doesn’t see Kyle. He starts to get a very bad feeling, which only gets worse as they speed up and there’s still no Kyle in sight.

“Oh no,” Awsten says. He breaks into a run and dashes into the tent space.

Nick looks around. There’s Otto, Scott, and a guy he doesn’t recognize. 

“Where did Jawn go?” Awsten asks Otto.

“I’m so sorry,” Otto says. “Me and Ash were talking with some fans and I turned my back and he was gone. And so was Kyle.”

“I was watching them,” the guy that Nick doesn’t recognize says. “They— I was trying to follow them but then some people got in the way and I lost them.”

“Geoff!” Awsten yells. “You lost them! That shadow fuck has Jawn now too?!” 

“Wait, what’s going on?” Scott says.

“Don’t worry about it,” Awsten says. He grabs Otto and the other guy— Geoff— and pulls them away from the December’s Tragedy tent. “Let’s talk about this somewhere else so nobody mistakes me for that possessed idiot. Which way were they headed? We can at least see if anyone saw them...”

Nick and Kevin follow, at a bit of a distance. Nick takes out his phone and calls Joe, since he’s sure if he just texts him, Joe will ignore it.

To his surprise, Joe answers right away. 

Except it’s not Joe.

“Hello,” Kyle says pleasantly. 

Nick stops walking, ice settling into his chest. “Who are you?” he says. “No— _what_ are you?”

Kyle laughs. “I’m sure Awsten will figure that out eventually.”

“Awsten!” Nick calls out. Awsten, Geoff, and Otto stop and turn around. Something must show on Nick’s face, because they all hurry back. Nick puts the phone on speaker.

“What are you doing? Why— why Kyle?” Nick says.

“Oh, is that him?” Awsten says, pushing past his friends and leaning towards the phone. “Hey! You fucker, listen to me! What the _fuck_ are you doing? What the fuck _are_ you? You think you’re so powerful, but I promise I’m gonna find a way to get rid of you. I’m going to fucking destroy you.”

“No you aren’t,” the thing possessing Kyle says. “And neither is any other psychic you find and try to talk into helping you, Awsten. Because… if you involve anyone else… well, keep in mind that I have Jawn with me now.”

“Oh my god,” Geoff whispers.

“Don’t you fucking touch him!” Awsten yells, earning them a lot of looks from people around them. 

“That all depends on what you do… and what you don’t do,” Kyle’s voice says.

“What do you want?” Nick says before Awsten can threaten the monster again. 

“I want Awsten to behave himself. He won’t find any answers if he’s only focusing on me, after all. And from you, Nick Jonas…” Nick feels a numbness spread through him. What… _he’s_ part of this?

“You already have one piece of the puzzle. One… ingredient. Get the other two, and I’ll return Joe.”

“You have Joe!” Kevin exclaims. 

“Give him back!” Nick says, panicked heat filling him up inside where he was cold and numb just moments ago. Fuck, they can’t lose Joe. Especially not in the middle of a fucking festival where they’re the headling act!

“I will… later,” Kyle says. 

“We— we’ve got a show,” Nick says, his tone desperate. “Can you— what’s the puzzle piece I have? Can I give you that and— we can’t play the show without him.”

The phone is quiet for a tense moment. Nick can’t even look at anyone else. “The sword,” Kyle finally says. “Bring the sword, and I’ll let you have Joe for your performance. But then I’m taking him back.”

“No you’re fucking not,” Awsten hisses. “You can’t just play with us like we’re—”

“Awsten, I told you to stop focusing on me,” the shadow thing interrupts. “You’ll find more answers if you look in another direction. You’re smart. You’ll figure out what it is that I want… very soon. For now, do as I say. Stay out of the astral world. And if you bring anyone else into this little… family matter, then I will harvest their eyes.”

The call ends immediately after that declaration. 

Nick feels sick. He thinks they’ve just gotten way more questions and problems than they’ve got answers. At least… at least he knows how to maybe get Joe back. Get that damn machete from the hotel. That’s easy. They can try and hang onto Joe when— if— he comes back for the show in a few hours. Maybe they can try to confront the monster possessing Kyle as well.

“We need backup,” Awsten says into the shocked silence.

Nick looks incredulously at him. “That thing literally just said—”

“That thing said it’s a family matter,” Awsten says. There’s something determined in his eyes. “It— it’s not just talking about me and Kyle. It’s giving us a hint.”

“What?” Kevin says.

Awsten nods. “Our older brother. Steve.”


	14. Chapter 14

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> day 14: entities

_HEY SOME SHITS GOING DOWN CAN I BRING SOME PEOPLE OVER TO UR PLACE?_

_🌶️_

Awsten frowns at Steve’s response. “Should I explain more? So he knows what’s he’s getting into?” he looks over at Otto who’s driving the car. Jawn’s car, technically. Awsten stole his spare keys a while ago, and they all were lucky for that. Who knows where that monster thing has taken Kyle, Jawn, and Joe. They definitely need a car to get to Steve’s place, not to mention the hotel the Jonas brothers are staying at.

“What did he say?” Geoff says, leaning forward from where he’s squashed in the back seat with Nick and Kevin Jonas. 

Awsten shows them the reply. “At least he texted back right away. He’s probably not busy,” Awsten says.

“I’m guessing your older brother is a psychic too?” Kevin says. “What can he do?”

Awsten sighs. “He can see… like, if he touches an object, he can see and feel the memories connected to it. But we’re not— it’s not about his ability, why we’re going to see him. He knows tons of shit about ghosts and all that bullshit that can haunt things and possess people. If anyone’s gonna know about this thing, he will.”

“He can also try and read that sword that monster in Kyle was talking about,” Otto says. “We’re getting that first, right?”

Awsten’s mouth drops open. That’s such a good idea. He can’t believe he didn’t think of that. He spins around to look at Nick. “What’s the sword like? How did you get it?”

Nick shrugs. “I— I don’t know? It was just in my room last night. I thought someone left it there.”

“Hm…” Awsten says. They’re definitely getting that first.

The sword, as it turns out, is actually a machete. And it looks so fucking cool. Dark red and swirly and sort of eerie-shaped. It has the look of something that could totally be associated with something evil. Or, like, a cliche Hollywood horror prop. It’s definitely real— and sharp, as Nick demonstrates with a paper towel. 

“So we trade this for Joe?” Nick says, sliding the blade back into the sheath. The other two passengers in the back seat look relieved. 

“I don’t know,” Awsten says, thinking. “That thing is one of the only clues we have. Something about that is going to tell us more about this monster.”

“How did you find it again?” Geoff says. 

Nick turns the machete over in his hands. “Um… it was in my bed? Sort of?”

Awsten is very curious about that. They’ll get more answers from Steve in a few minutes, at least. 

The rest of the drive to Steve’s place is tense and mostly silent. All of them are aware of how little time they have before the Jonas brothers need to be back for their show. And Joe absolutely has to be there, otherwise shit will really hit the fan. Awsten hopes that the monster is also aware of that, and hasn’t taken Joe and Jawn too far. It at least showed up to the December’s Tragedy performance. Hopefully that means it understands the importance of maintaining a normal appearance while doing all this evil possession bullshit.

They park in front of Steve’s place and head up to his door— decorated with a white strand of snowflake-shaped lights and a wreath made of pink roses and glittery hearts. 

“Your brother’s decorated for two holidays, and neither of them are Halloween,” Nick says. 

“Yeah, Steve’s pretty weird,” Geoff says.

Awsten knocks on the door. “Steve! We’re here! And we don’t have a lot of—”

Steven opens the door. His hair is still styled into the pink-dyed faux hawk from last week, and he’s got pointy anime sunglasses on his face and a truly giant fur-lined winter coat. He does a double take at the crowd assembled outside his door.

“Uh,” he says, taking off his sunglasses and eyeing the crowd one by one, settling on Awsten last. “What’s going on?”

“Kyle’s in trouble,” Awsten says. 

Steve raises his eyebrows and gestures for everyone to come inside. Steve’s living room is full of… so many things, so he walks them to the dining room, which is nearly spotless. Everyone takes a chair around the table. Steve sits down last, a worried look on his face.

“What’s going on with Kyle?” Steve says. He pauses, and then adds. “Sorry, I— I know who you two are, you don’t have to introduce yourselves or anything— I’m Steve Knight. Aws and Kyle’s big brother. Now… Awsten?”

Awsten clenches and unclenches his hands. “Basically… something’s possessing Kyle. When I look in the astral world, it’s like… like this huge shadow with like a million eyes all over it. It’s fucking powerful, and I have no idea what it wants with Kyle, or us—”

“Hold it right there,” Steve interrupts. His face is pale and his eyes are full of fear. “Big fucking shadow with a bunch of eyes that can possess us?”

Something heavy lodges itself in Awsten’s chest. “Yes…?”

“I know what that is,” Steve says. “It’s… it’s really bad.”

Awsten wants to feel relieved— they’ve got an answer— but… Steve won’t look at him all of a sudden and it’s concerning. His older brother closes his eyes and shudders. The whole group waits with bated breath. 

“That’s the same thing that possessed me when I was thirteen,” Steve says.

“What?” Awsten says.

He’s never—

“You were—” he whispers.

“Its name is Midnight,” Steve says. “Or at least that’s what it called itself when it was running around in my body.”

“You got possessed by this thing too?” Otto says.

“But you’re not, not anymore,” Nick says with hope in his voice. “So that means it’ll leave Kyle eventually?” 

“How— how did you get rid of it?” Kevin says. “What does it want?”

Steve crosses his arms. It’s almost painful seeing Steve so shaken by something. And it makes Awsten fear for Kyle— and Jawn— even more. 

“I didn’t get rid of it,” Steve says. “I barely knew what was going on. I was gone for a week.”

“A week,” Awsten repeats in horror. 

“It’s— it’s not going to hurt Kyle,” Steve says, sounding slightly more confident. “It’s— it didn’t actually hurt anyone— not physically at least.”

“What is that supposed to mean?” Otto says.

“It can— Midnight can steal psychic powers,” Steve says. “I don’t know how, but I remember… in that week it was possessing me, it must have stolen the psychic abilities from dozens of psychics in Dove. Maybe more. It’s not even— I think it like… feeds on the energy? I’m not— I never really thought about why… But I _do_ remember that— that Midnight used my powers to read people’s memories so it could find more psychics. That was the worst thing, knowing it was using me to do that.”

Awsten’s mind is reeling. Stealing psychic powers… How fucking powerful is this thing? 

“And it’s not— it’s not a ghost or a spirit,” Steve continues. “It’s a powerful fucking… entity. Thing. It’s really old too; I remember it telling me that it’s been with our family for generations. And that’s why we’re such powerful psychics. It’s like… a side effect.”

Awsten doesn’t know what to say. 

“So that’s— this old ass monster is possessing Kyle to hunt down psychics?” Otto says. “But— why Jawn? He doesn’t have psychic powers.”

“It wants us to do something,” Awsten says.

“This,” Nick says, putting his machete down on the surface of the table.

On instinct, Steve shrinks away from the object. “What’s this?”

“Midnight said it would give us back Joe if we brought this to it,” Awsten says. 

“It just showed up in my hotel room last night,” Nick says. 

“Haunted hotel,” Kevin adds. 

“So…” Steve peers down at the machete but keeps his hands far away from it. “So Midnight hasn’t stolen anyone’s powers yet?”

“Not that I’m aware of,” Awsten says. “Can you— this is the only lead we’ve got for what it wants this time.”

Steve looks extremely uncomfortable. “Is there anything you can tell me about this? To prepare me for what I’m gonna see?”

Awsten looks back at Nick and Kevin, who shrug helplessly. Fuck, Awsten hates this. He hates it even more now that he knows Steve has a history with this monster. But… what other choice do they have? Just run back to the festival and hand this over, not knowing what it is or what it can do? They have the means to find more answers before that.

“Hey,” Otto says suddenly. “I can connect us so we all see it. So it’s not just you.”

“I can astral project and see if there’s anything weird about it,” Awsten offers.

Steve shakes his head. “No. You don’t— if this thing is connected to Midnight in some way, then you don’t want that shit inside your head.” He grits his teeth and reaches out to touch the handle of the machete. 

Awsten’s heart pounds. Steve’s face twists in pain— and Awsten immediately goes to pull it away from him— but his hand grips the handle tightly, pulling it out of his reach for a few seconds. Then Steve drops it, gasping and shaking again.

“What was it?” Awsten asks. 

All of them lean closer. Steve grabs a nearby empty water glass and uses it to shove the machete back down towards Nick, who takes it back.

“I don’t know. It’s— it’s definitely connected with Midnight. But… something else too. Other… at least other psychics, maybe ghosts and stuff too. There’s a whole lot of power in that thing. Lots of different energies have come in contact with it, and there’s a ton of anger and negativity in it. I can’t say what exactly happened, but it’s…”

“So we shouldn’t just hand this over to Midnight?” Geoff says.

“I wouldn’t recommend it,” Steve says.

“But we don’t have a choice,” Nick says. “This is the only way to get Joe back. And— Midnight said there’s other pieces it wants, right? If we get those, then maybe it’ll give Jawn back too.”

Awsten’s heart aches at the reminder that Midnight has his boyfriend. “Maybe,” he echoes. “This thing is powerful enough that it can do whatever it wants. How do we know it’s not lying and that it’ll actually—”

“We have to try,” Nick says. He pulls the machete close to his chest. “Midnight seemed to want you to figure things out, Awsten. Well… you have. We at least know what we’re dealing with here.”

Awsten feels so frustrated that it’s making him sick to his stomach. He hates this so much. Yeah, they’ve got some answers, but it hasn’t exactly made this problem easier to solve. They’re still at Midnight’s mercy, forced to play its fucking mystery game. Jawn’s still a hostage, and Awsten doubts that’s going to change if they show up with the machete. 

His phone vibrates with a text. Awsten takes it out numbly, his mind still racing in its downwards spiral.

_I’ll be waiting backstage for you. Remember to tell Steve thank you._


	15. Chapter 15

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> day 15: spiders

Joe doesn’t remember falling asleep. He must have— wherever he is, it’s cold and kind of damp, and he’s lying on the ground instead of on a bed or a couch. He groans, rolls over, and opens his eyes.

Oh no.

He hopes he’s having a nightmare right now. 

He’s in a— catacombs. Or a mausoleum or something. The walls are earth and stone and the ceiling is propped up by old wooden planks. And there’s actual flaming torches in brackets on the walls. Oh god. This is horrible. Terrifying. Wherever he is, he needs to get out before he loses his mind. 

Joe sits up quickly and looks around in a panic for the door. He doesn’t really see one— oh no, it’s right over there. And Kyle is sitting on the floor in front of it, leaned against it. And— who is that other person? No, he recognizes him after a second look. Jawn. 

Joe can’t help the hysterical nervous laugh that bursts out of him. “What the hell? What the hell?”

He gets to his feet. He’s already shaking. He hurries over to Jawn first. 

“Hey,” he says, shaking Jawn. “What’s— where is— how did we get here? Jawn? You okay?”

Jawn doesn’t stir. 

Suddenly afraid that the guy is dead, Joe leaves him and runs towards Kyle. Halfway there, he recalls the conversation earlier. With Awsten. Kyle is possessed.

Joe freezes. He’s so close to the door, but… but possessed? What does that mean for— Kyle looks like he might be asleep right now, so maybe— 

Kyle’s eyes open and Joe shrieks and jumps back. 

Kyle smiles. “Good news Joe,” he says as he stands up and stretches. He takes a phone out of his pocket and starts texting. “You get to go back and play your show.”

Show? 

The damn show?

That’s honestly the least of Joe’s concerns right now.

He’s in, like, an underground catacomb-thing, and there’s definitely spiders and possibly ghosts and skeletons and all that horribly creepy stuff just lurking in the dark corners ready to eat Joe when he’s not looking— and Jawn might be dead on the floor— and Kyle is _possessed_. 

Instead of verbalizing some kind of response to his fear, Joe makes another undignified screaming noise. Kyle at least doesn’t laugh at him, but he’s watching him with a bored patience, the phone back in his pocket.

“What is going on,” Joe manages to say after another moment of intense panic. 

Kyle crosses his arms and leans against the door. “Your brothers will fill you in. All you need to know from me is that there is nothing you can do to hinder me. No security, no police, no other psychics. The only thing you can do… is to do what I say.” He smiles, but the shadows in the room make it, like, the worst kind of nightmare smile imaginable. “So I’ll be bringing you back for your show… but then you’ll be coming back here.”

“Wh— Kyle?”

Kyle shakes his head. “No. Midnight.”

Before Joe can stutter out anything more, he feels an overwhemingly dizzy sensation in his head. He reaches a sluggish arm up to grab at his temples, as he squeezes his eyes shut and tries not to collapse. He’s vaguely aware of his legs moving— to keep himself from falling over— and then he slides ungracefully to—

A seat?

Joe blinks and finds himself sitting on a bench in the backstage area. Another band is performing, and it’s jarring suddenly hearing the music and the noise of the festival.

And then his vision is full of Nick and Kevin. Both of them are reaching out for him, looking concerned. 

“Joe!” Nick says.

“You’re alright!” Kevin says.

Someone else— Awsten— comes up on Joe’s side. There’s two other guys with him, Joe notices. Neither of them are Jawn. “What happened?” Awsten says. “Did Midnight do anything to you? What did it say?”

Joe reaches out to grab Nick and Kevin. They’re real. Not a nightmare. Then again, that dark place felt real. 

“What’s going on?” he says, desperate to hear something that makes sense. He’s— he’s so confused and so much has been happening and he doesn’t understand what all this psychic and possession stuff is. What’s going on with Kyle, where he was, how he got back here— if he even left… 

Nick leans close, his face going serious. “Joe. Kyle’s been possessed by some super powerful psychic-eating thing that wants— well, we’re not really sure, but it has something to do with this.”

He lifts up the machete from last night. Joe stares at it. 

“Okay?” he says. “Psychic-eating?”

“Not exactly,” Kyle’s voice answers. 

Joe flinches. Nick and Kevin both turn around in alarm. Awsten starts to yell out something, but whatever it is, he never gets the chance to finish forming the words. 

The noise, the light, the smells and sounds of the festival all dim, like someone’s turning off the lights and things in a previously busy room. Joe can barely focus on taking deep breaths to calm himself because, well, how is he supposed to keep calm like this.

It’s like he’s been plunged into a void. He can’t even see anyone besides Kyle, taking slow steps towards a motionless Nick. Joe feels like a frozen bystander.

“You know that sword is important now,” Kyle says. “I wouldn’t recommend letting it out of your sight for too long. It’s very powerful, you know. Very special.”

“What’s your connection to it?” Nick says. 

Kyle stops a few feet away from Nick. They’re the only two spots of color— of anything— in the inky dark blue void. 

Kyle smiles. “That’s an answer I can’t give you yet. Not until you find the other two pieces. Too much knowledge, in this case, can be bad for you.”

His hand snaps out like a shark and closes around Nick’s hand on the handle of the machete. At first, Joe thinks Kyle is going to pull the machete away from Nick, but he makes no effort to do so. Instead, the machete glows with a sickly green light that flashes brightly, and then fades to a green-blue hue before brightening up again to a bright blue. 

“Thank you, Nick,” Kyle says. 

The void shatters like a great glass globe around them. All the noises and smells and everything is back like it was never gone. Joe gasps for air. Awsten swears loudly. Kevin stumbles onto the bench beside Joe. Awsten’s other two friends look around, asking where Kyle’s gone. After Joe takes a second to remind himself that he’s still here, despite all this weird bullshit, he takes a look around for himself.

Nick is holding the machete still, but Kyle is gone once again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I saw 5sos tonight and they were incredible but now Ive accidentally zoomed in on google docs and I cant zoom out. someone please help
> 
> edit: ok its control + 0 Im ok now


	16. Chapter 16

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> day 16: fire

There’s barely enough time to fill in Joe on what’s going on before they have to get their asses onstage. Nick knows he’s still in shock, although he seems to believe everything they tell him about Midnight. He wants to ask about what happened after Midnight took him, but all too soon, they get pulled aside, scolded for disappearing, and thrown onto the stage. 

Nick tries to put on his best performance, as always, but it’s hard with everything that’s happened since the previous night. During a pause between songs, he suddenly remembers talking with Kyle about how they could jump in and sing during each other’s sets.

That feels like so long ago now. 

Glancing to the side, he sees Awsten, Geoff, and Otto. Even in the shadow, Awsten really doesn’t look much like his twin. He tries to keep the melancholy inside and keep a happy expression on his face. 

It really sucks though, that as soon as he finds a guy he’s into, the guy gets possessed by something and runs off to suck the powers out of psychics like a vampire. Nick gets a vivid mental image of Kyle with fangs, biting people and he nearly misses his cue. 

As soon as the lights go out and the three move backstage, Joe vanishes again. 

It’s the most frustrating thing, because both Nick and Kevin immediately gravitate to him, hoping to keep him in sight, but then they pass under a shadow and he’s gone. 

“Damn it,” Awsten says, appearing beside them. “That fucking Midnight! When he shows up again, I’m jumping him. Kyle’s body can take it.”

“He’d better be back before, like, actual midnight,” Geoff says. “Otherwise you’re gonna have some problems.”

Nick cocks his head at Geoff. Not that he’s arguing— he wants Joe and Kyle (and Jawn) back soon too— but why that specific time?

“Yeah, there’s that masquerade event tonight,” Kevin mutters. “I mean… we don’t actually _need_ to show up? We can tweet that we’re tired or something to anyone who’s hoping for us to show. Just in case Midnight doesn’t bring Joe back?”

“We’ve got five hours until then,” Awsten says. “Five hours to either track down Kyle or find another one of those… whatever-things that Midnight wants.”

The machete. 

The group travels to the small musician parking lot, where Jawn’s car is parked in a corner. Nick retrieves the machete from the back of the car and draws it out of its sheath again. 

“What exactly happened when Midnight… you know. Did that?” Awsten says.

Nick keeps his eyes trained on the blade. It’s a dark bloody red in the orange light of sunset. “He just… it was like. Before, this thing just felt like… I don’t know. Cool, but kind of normal. Maybe it felt like it was important, but then again, I’ve never had one of these before. But when Midnight was holding it… it felt like… like what you’d imagine a heroic sword would feel like in a fantasy story or something. But when Midnight let go, it just went back to feeling normal. Except—”

“Except what?” Kevin says.

“It’s kind of… warmer.” Nick’s only been holding the handle for a minute, but it feels very warm. Not uncomfortably so, but… weirdly warm for how chilly it’s getting. 

“Okay, so it’s definitely still got some power, probably,” Awsten says. “We can assume Midnight did something to it, but didn’t feel the need to keep it.”

“So maybe it was a threat before, but not anymore?” Nick suggests.

“Or it could come and take it whenever it wants,” Otto says.

Geoff leans a bit closer to look at the machete. “Should we take it back to Steve? See what he thinks?”

“I don’t think Steve can tell us much more,” Awsten says. He groans and leans against the side of the car. “Fuck. Would it kill Midnight to give us another hint? We did what it wanted! Why can’t it tell us some more? Help us out!”

“How did you get it, exactly?” Geoff says, looking at Nick. “You said it was in your room, but…”

“It was— I got on my bed and I felt it behind my back.” Nick says, shrugging. He fights the urge to pull the machete out of its sheath again. He’s getting kind of attached to the thing. “I thought someone left it there.”

“Should we go back to the hotel?” Kevin says. “Maybe the next piece will show up in the same way.”

Nick looks at Awsten. Awsten looks frustrated. 

“It’s all we’ve got so far,” Nick says. 

With no other options, the five of them pile into the car again and take off. It’s quiet on the ride to the hotel, so Nick takes the time to look at the machete again and try to figure out exactly how it’s making him feel. He slides the blade halfway out of the sheath and stares hard at the red-tinted metal.

The handle and the sheath are both warm in his hands. Nick stares so long that his eyes start to itch with the need to blink, but for some reason, he can’t. Not yet. The sword is so warm. It’s starting to feel hot, actually.

He can’t blink. 

He can’t move.

And then… 

Pitch black darkness. A burst of bright green fire. His chest is tight and—

The car hits a pothole and Nick’s ripped out of— whatever he was seeing. His eyes burn as he blinks them rapidly. What was— No! Was that a vision? A clue? A hint? He tries looking at the blade again, but Kevin slaps him on the leg and tells him to put it away before he accidentally hurts someone with it.

Nick slides the machete back down into the sheath and holds it close against his chest.

He was close. So close, he just knows it. But at least he’s got an idea of what to do now.

He’ll figure it out.

He’ll get the next two things that Midnight is looking for.

And he’ll save Kyle.


	17. Chapter 17

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> day 17: haunted places

“Where are we?” Jawn says, his voice echoing in the underground room. 

“Does Dove have catacombs?” Joe answers. “If so, then we’re probably somewhere in them.”

Jawn thinks. “I don’t— I mean, I wouldn’t be surprised, but it’s not _that_ old of a city. If it does have catacombs, then they were built in secret by some really weird person.” The only other options he can come up with are: they’re in one of those giant old mausoleums at the extremely haunted Shady Oak Cemetery; they’re in some creepy old basement, or; they’re not even in the real world right now. It doesn’t feel like the astral-spirit world, but Jawn has no idea what else Midnight might be capable of.

Midnight’s not here now. After bringing Joe back after his show, it left through the door, which refuses to budge no matter how much effort Joe and Jawn put into pulling it open. Joe’s explained what Awsten and the others have figured out so far. Jawn’s glad they’ve got some answers, but it still seems like a hopeless fight.

“This whole place is full of weird people,” Joe mutters. “I should have listened to that magic person yesterday. I’m gonna get killed by a possessed emo in a catacombs.”

Jawn decides not to ask about whatever Joe’s talking about. “It’ll be alright. Midnight hasn’t— if it was going to hurt us, it’s had plenty of chances to do that already.”

“That’s right.”

Jawn jumps and gets to his feet. Midnight is walking into the room, shutting the door behind itself. Jawn can’t help but worry about Kyle inside that monster— or however it is. It doesn’t look like Midnight’s hurt Kyle’s body, which supports a theory that Jawn’s building in his mind. Really, the only physical change is the dark sclera, which Jawn is unfortunately getting used to.

But his theory… 

Midnight seems awfully fond of Kyle. And it was encouraging and complimenting Awsten earlier, even though it put him to sleep multiple times to prevent him from meddling. Meanwhile, it seems dismissive and even disdainful of the Jonas brothers, but it’s willing to work with them for this… mission. There’s some kind of connection here. It’s not the same as the one Steve described with the Knight family, but it’s something.

“Where were you?” Joe says. 

Midnight looks at Joe with an expression of disinterest. “Pulling psychic eyes out of insignificant little creatures,” it answers bluntly. “Dove has no end of them. It’s a feast.”

Joe shudders. 

“That can’t be your whole goal,” Jawn says. Midnight stares at him and it’s creepy as fuck, but he tries to keep his nerve. 

He thinks hard about the information Joe relayed to him— the information from Steve. What Midnight’s done in the past. The mystery of the machete. “If—” Jawn says. “If all you wanted was to harvest more energy, you could have done it without anyone finding out. You could have waited until a quieter time, or used Steve again. But you went for Kyle, in the middle of this festival, and got Awsten _and_ the Jonas brothers— who had nothing to do with any of this— involved. So… why?”

Midnight’s expression is cold and blank. It’s scary seeing that on Kyle’s face. 

Jawn swallows. “What _are_ you? You’re not just— you’re not just some monster, are you? What do you want?”

“No,” Midnight says. “I’m not just a monster. You’re sharp, aren’t you? I suppose that’s why Awsten keeps you around. That and… other reasons.”

Jawn’s face heats up and his fists clench. He doesn’t want to be hearing some monster talk about his relationship with Awsten.

“You’re right,” Midnight says. “There is a reason that I’m revealing myself like this. At this time. This… opportunity.”

“The Jonas brothers have something you want,” Jawn says, hoping he’s right.

Midnight gets a distant look on Kyle’s face. “Specifically, Nick is the key to getting something that I _need_.”

“The machete.” Joe says. “What’s so special about it?”

Midnight glares at Joe. “Joe, I am tolerating Jawn because Awsten will be upset if I do anything to cause him extreme distress.” Jawn kind of wants to interject and point out how he is pretty distressed right now, in this creepy dark room. “But you are nothing to me. Useless. Powerless. The only purpose you have is to motivate your brother into working faster. Don’t make demands of me.”

Joe looks like he intends to argue, so Jawn talks faster to protect him from whatever wrath Midnight’s about to throw at him.

“So what about Kyle and Awsten?” he says. “I mean, you’re using Kyle’s powers, I’m assuming. Because of his visions. So— you need Awsten to—”

“Kyle and Awsten…” Midnight says, a faint smile tugging at Kyle’s lips. “Yes. I told you earlier, Kyle’s visions are vital to this. He has already shown me what I’ve been waiting for… for so long. I want more eyes before I can face her… but I have already waited so long…” Midnight trails off and the shadows in the dark room start to twist and warp. 

Jawn and Joe both flinch back as the shadows turn darker and denser, swirling around Midnight as the monster seems to zone out with that small smile. 

“What about Awsten?” Jawn says. “Why— what’s your plan with him? Why are you having him run around chasing leads when you could just tell him what exactly you want? Hell, you could tell Nick exactly what you need next.”

Midnight leans against the door and sighs. “Jawn… you only know the tip of the iceberg. Do you think Awsten and Kyle’s powers are limited to what they can do, with their own human means? Do you think I can only possess one person at a time? Do you think I can’t take control of a person— and their powers— without their knowledge?”

Jawn stares in horror. “No…” he whispers. “Awsten—”

“Do you think…” Midnight says. “That Awsten and Nick aren’t about to do _exactly_ what I want them to do right now? Just another few minutes and they’ll be exactly where I want them.”

“Don’t—”

“It’s alright, Jawn.” Midnight says. “I won’t hurt them. That would be rather counterproductive, now wouldn’t it?”


	18. Chapter 18

Part of Nick feels guilty about ignoring all the texts steadily coming from their manager and team. They’re trusting him to do what he’s told and not get into trouble… and here he is. Following the instructions of some dark supernatural monster, throwing himself into a whole mess for a guy he’s crushing on, and losing track of his entire brother. And not telling their manager _anything_.

It’s not like they have a choice. Midnight is bigger than the festival, and they don’t have enough time to stop and try to explain. He doubts Midnight would even let them talk to anyone else about what’s going on.

He looks up at the hotel with a heavy feeling in his chest. Something tells him that finding the next two things Midnight wants isn’t going to be easy. 

“Can we order something?” Otto is saying behind him. “I’m— it’s been a couple hours and I’m starving.”

“Me too,” Geoff says sheepishly.

“As long as it isn’t fucking pizza,” Awsten says back. “And don’t forget we don’t have forever.”

Nick leads the way into the hotel and they take the stairs up to their rooms on the third floor. Geoff, Otto, Awsten, and Kevin talk amongst themselves the entire way, arguing about delivery before settling on something. Nick doesn’t pay attention. He’s hungry, sure, but he’s too stressed to worry about that.

He opens the door to his room.

It’s just the same as it was when he left it this morning. The bed is made and a quick search confirms there’s no other machetes hiding in the sheets. He checks under the bed next, but there’s nothing.

“Was there a certain feeling you got when you found it?” Awsten says. “Like… psychic presences are pretty distinctive.”

“Either weirdly cold or hot,” Geoff says, poking his head into the bathroom. 

“And they’ve sometimes got this intense feeling that sort of vibrates inside you,” Otto adds, still on his phone. “Sometimes it makes you feel… afraid or helpless.”

Nick tries to remember. “I don’t know… I don’t think so?”

“It was when me and Joe were in here, right?” Kevin says, going to mess with Nick’s bags. Nick stops him and pushes him in a different direction.

“Yeah, but that was just cause you were hiding from the ghosts in your rooms,” Nick says. 

“Fuck!” Awsten exclaims. “Of course! Why didn’t— Otto, you try and reach out to the ghosts here and see if they’ve noticed anything!”

“Oh,” Otto says, lowering his phone. “That’s a good idea.”

Nick looks from Awsten to Otto. “What— why? What’s—”

“Otto’s a medium,” Geoff says. “Awsten, do you want to try astral projecting while Otto sets up?”

“I can try,” Awsten says. 

“Didn’t Midnight tell you not to?” Kevin points out.

“Yeah, but fuck Midnight,” Awsten says. He sits down on the edge of the bed and closes his eyes. 

Nick watches him, a little anxious. Otto and Geoff, meanwhile, are sitting down at the small table near the window, and Kevin is just pacing around. Nick glances at his older brother, remembers that Kevin’s going to be no help at all, and then looks back at Awsten. As he waits, he shifts the machete from his left hand to his right. Should he be trying to do something with it?

He thinks back to what he felt in the car ride earlier. The heat and the green fire. Maybe… 

Awsten’s face suddenly twists and he flinches and grabs at his head. “Motherfucker! That— that fucking bastard won’t let me— it’s like it put a wall in the way. I can’t do it and fighting is like… damn it! I fucking hate this thing…”

Nick’s hand tightens on the handle of the machete. It still doesn’t feel like anything. What did he do earlier…?

“Hey Awsten, I’ve got a problem too,” Otto announces from the other side of the room. Nick, Awsten, and Kevin all look over at the other two. Otto’s holding Geoff’s hands across the table, sort of like a two-person seance. Both of them appear to be frustrated. 

“What’s Midnight doing to fuck with you?” Awsten says.

“Well, I can feel the ghosts,” Otto says. “But they won’t come. They’re still in the hotel, but it’s like they’re hiding.”

“And I’m feeling—” Geoff starts, but Kevin cuts him off.

“So Midnight won’t let you use your psychic powers?” Kevin says. “What the— how are we supposed to find these things then? And we don’t even know what we’re looking for!”

Nick draws the machete out of its sheath. He _does_ have an idea of what they’re looking for. Nothing specific, but…

All of a sudden, the room goes dark. Nick leaps up off the bed, and everyone else jumps to attention. 

“Midnight?” Kevin breathes, panicked. 

“Hey! You motherfucker!” Awsten yells. “Give us a fucking hint! Quit fucking with us!”

Midnight doesn’t respond. The room plunges into pitch inky blackness. Nick can’t even see what’s in front of his face. He stumbles backwards, but the bed isn’t there anymore. His hand tightens on the handle of the machete, to make sure it’s still in his hand.

“Kevin?” he says. “Can you see— where are you?”

Kevin doesn’t answer. Nick blinks but there’s still nothing but absolute darkness. His heart rate picks up and he turns around rapidly, his head spinning from the movement. Nothing. 

“Awsten?”

“Otto? Geoff?”

No reply. His voice echoes slightly, and he realizes with a start that it’s just like the astral world that Awsten took him into earlier. But this is nothing like that place. There’s just… nothing. Up, down, any direction he looks, there’s nothing. He takes a step and it feels like moving through water. A sudden fear of suffocating overtakes him, and he spends a moment trying to convince himself to calm down.

It doesn’t work as well as he’d like.

“Kyle?” Nick says, hoping for a miracle but knowing the chances of him getting a response are next to none.

Kyle’s voice doesn’t answer. That doesn’t mean Midnight isn’t here. 

Nick lifts up the machete. “Midnight!” he yells. He swings the machete in a slashing motion, but again, it feels like he’s surrounded by water. He’s got nothing else to try, so he does it again. And again.

Nick loses track of how much he swings the machete. He puts all of his strength into it, ignoring the stress of exertion. He narrows his eyes— still unable to see anything in the darkness— and concentrates on nothing else. 

“KYLE!” he yells, his voice echoing through the void. 

And Nick sees something. A flicker of green, but even the tiniest spark of flame is blindingly bright after seeing nothing for so long. He instinctively shuts his eyes, but opens them again, desperate to see something.

The green is gone, but he can see something. Shapes. At least… he can see the shape of his hand and the machete. The darkness around him is still absolute, but he can see—

Red. 

Dark bloody red. 

A thick liquid dripping off the machete. 

The entire blade is covered in it, and it pours heavily onto the ground around Nick, making a wet splattering sound.

There’s already a small puddle forming at his feet. 

Nick backs away, but the puddle only grows larger and larger around him as it continues to flow out of the blade of the machete.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> day 18: darkness


	19. Chapter 19

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> day 19: children

Kyle knows what this is.

He’s not sure how long he’s been asleep… but he knows he’s dreaming. And it’s one of _those_ dreams. 

Fucking visions.

**I’m sorry, Kyle.**

It’s like he’s watching something on a screen, but he’s surrounded by it. And he can feel it— everything around him. He can smell it all and he can hear it all… He hates visions so much. 

He has no control over what he sees… or how long they last.

Now, Kyle’s in a small wooden room with two young girls in two identical beds on either side of the room. The scene looks like something from out of those old timey black and white movies. What Kyle can see is dim, which is usually the case with visions of the past. This vision in particular… could be from at least a hundred years ago.

Because he’s cold. He’s fucking freezing, actually.

There’s a fireplace between the girls’ beds, but it’s burnt down to a handful of glowing embers. One of the girls is asleep under a faded patchwork quilt, while the other is stirring. 

She pokes her head out of her bed and looks down at the floor. Kyle follows her gaze and sees—

A shadow— darker than the rest of the shadows in the room— creeping out from under the bed. The girl squeaks and hides under her own quilt.

**So long ago...**

Kyle jumps. He knows he just heard something. Like an echo. Is it part of the vision?

But the scene blurs and melts away. Kyle’s a little bit relieved— at least he didn’t have to see anything happen to those little girls. He knows it’s all in the past and there’s nothing he could have done, but he still feels bad whenever he sees something horrifying and then wakes up in the morning to discover the event happened eighty years ago.

He’s in a forest now. It’s warm, which is a nice change, and it smells like any regular forest. Trees, decaying leaves, rich earth. An owl hoots somewhere. It’s comforting. But it’s dark. He looks up and sees only a sliver of moon, which soon slips behind a cloud. 

Then he starts hearing something. Voices. Several of them, and they sound like adults. Kyle can’t tell where they’re coming from. Behind, maybe?

All he can do is wait. He can’t affect these visions— all he can do is wait where he is and watch them. 

The voices are getting closer. Kyle feels something— something oppressive that makes his breathing difficult. A psychic presence?

The moon emerges from behind the cloud and the faint light filters through the trees just ahead to show a monstrous creature. A wolf, but… bigger than any wolf should be. It’s huge, blacker than a shadow, and hunched over. Fear immediately floods through Kyle.

The moonlight is swallowed up by darkness again, and a dozen gleaming dark blue eyes appear across the wolf’s body.

**Are you trying to wake up?**

Kyle shakes his head. The vision is gone, replaced by swirling shadows around him. Colors, shapes, sounds… almost like the astral-spirit world. But not quite. The strange dreamlike world darkens, but it’s still weirdly familiar. 

Did he— did he just get himself out of a vision?

That shouldn’t— he’s not usually able to do that. Kyle grimaces and reaches to grab at his head, which is suddenly aching. His arms move slowly, but they move. 

What’s going on?

How long has he been asleep?

When is his alarm going to ring?

**I need you to stay asleep, Kyle.**

**Just a while longer.**

Kyle’s head hurts so badly. He opens his mouth to make some kind of noise— which doesn’t work; it never works. He falls to his hands and knees, and then drops his head against the ground.

The ground is too soft, and he feels himself being twisted and moved around until he’s back on his unsteady feet again.

Still dreaming.

Damn it.

**You don’t need to see— **

The next visions come at him fast— too fast to feel anything but an overwhelming tidal wave of terror.

Screaming.

Crying.

Bright green.

Blood on his hands.

Pain in his chest.

A woman, her face hidden by a large dark hat and her features concealed by a long cloak.

Burning.

Fire roaring.

A bright green—

**Not that. **

Shadows rise up around him and swallow up everything, and Kyle feels himself drifting backwards… 


	20. Chapter 20

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> day 20: initially this was owls, ravens, and crows but that theme didnt really fit with what was going on

That bastard of a monster is _using his powers_. 

Awsten fights at the darkness around him. He swears and yells for Midnight to show its bitchass face. “And don’t come as Kyle,” he yells, punching even though it’s hard to move in this weird place. “Come in your true form! I’ve seen it! Come on, you motherfucker!!”

He stops flailing for a moment to rest. This place almost feels like the astral-spirit world, but Awsten knows that place. This is like… like what he imagines it would be like to project himself into Kyle’s dreams. Kyle used to tell him about all his visions when they were younger. A dark void world where he can’t affect anything— can hardly move— that he can’t escape until the visions come and leave. This void is exactly like how Kyle described. Only the visions aren’t coming.

Awsten can feel Kyle’s psychic energy everywhere, along with his own. It’s a fucking— it’s insulting, _humiliating_ having his powers twisted and used against him like this.

“This all part of your plan?” he yells. “I thought you wanted Nick to Secret Santa you some mystery magic shit! You never said anything about this!”

Something incredibly dense and incredibly powerful starts to send psychic ripples. Awsten freezes, and then braces himself.

“Yeah, get your ass over here,” he says. “Fucking talk to me!”

A dark figure appears in the midst of all the shadows around him. The same figure as before: a giant mountain of a monster, covered in hundreds— no, _thousands_— of eyes that open and close all over its body. A vaguely… canine body. At least a dozen tails, all of them bigger than skyscrapers, point in all directions behind Midnight’s body. The monster lowers its head, but Awsten still has to crane his neck up to look at its face.

Fuck… this is scary.

It’s scarier than seeing Midnight from a distance in the astral-spirit world. It’s worse than hearing it talk through Kyle like he’s a puppet. This just… makes Awsten so much more aware of how… small he is.

How is he supposed to fight this thing?

**Yes, Awsten?**

Awsten grits his teeth and glares. He just needs to focus on how pissed off he is. What the fuck ever. Clearly, Midnight has the power to easily crush him. He might as well yell at it while he can.

“What the fuck!” he yells. “What the fuck are you?”

Dozens of eyes stare down at him. Awsten’s disgusted, but he’s also still scared out of his mind.

**I am an entity of fear. **

“Yeah? Fucking cool, good for you,” Awsten says. “So what do you want? And don’t give me that same bullshit as before.” He’s fucking shaking and Midnight can definitely see, but he can’t do anything about it. His body has decided he’s terrified, and it’s going to shake no matter what.

“I get it— you steal the powers from other psychics to get stronger,” Awsten says. “But what’s with the sword? What’s the other thing that Steve saw? Is that another entity? Is that…” Awsten stops as something occurs to him.

Midnight is building up its own strength. It probably has been doing so for… for a while. There’s some other thing that’s probably another entity connected to the machete. Midnight seems pretty damn impatient to get whatever these items are…

**The sword is no longer important to me. **

“But the other two items are,” Awsten says. “And you— whatever you did to the machete— it’s not a threat to you anymore, is it? Are those things that, like… things that can hurt you?”

Midnight sinks it head even lower and Awsten backs away, but he can’t escape the huge monster in front of him.

**I am not your enemy, Awsten. **

Awsten scoffs. “Yeah, I don’t fucking buy that. You’ve been fucking with us from the start— ”

**Have I hurt you? Have I hurt Kyle? No. I haven’t even hurt any of those wasteful psychics when I harvest from them. I am not a mindless monster, Awsten. I manipulate, yes, but I do not push you harder than you can stand. I will return Jawn and Joe when Nick has done his part. **

Awsten’s fists clench and he takes a brave step closer to Midnight. “Let them go _now_. And— whatever you’re doing, with the machete, with whatever Nick finds— I don’t fucking care. We’ll find another way to get rid of you.”

**You understand nothing, Awsten. Trying to get rid of me will bring serious consequences on yourself. **

Awsten scowls and crosses his arms stubbornly. “We’ll see about that.” 


	21. Chapter 21

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> day 21: curses

**Three items, Nick. You have one... now find the others. It should be easier like this.**

There’s no way to avoid hearing Midnight’s voice echoing throughout the void around him. At least it doesn’t really sound like Kyle anymore. It’s deep and low, but not particularly masculine or feminine. It doesn’t matter. Nick’s got more important things on his hands.

He’s got a machete pouring something that looks— and feels— like blood and no idea what it means. The blood has spread around him, forming a seemingly unending puddle that ripples every time Nick twitches.

It’s so gross. 

“The hell is this,” he mutters, hearing his own voice echo again. 

Since it started leaking blood, he’s tried swinging it again, but all that does is splatter the red liquid in a wide arc. For now, Nick keeps it pointed away from him.

“Midnight?” he calls out. “What’s it doing?”

**Not important.**

“No, it’s pretty important to me,” he says. It just keeps dripping blood. Nick has no idea how long it’s been, but he’s been hoping it would stop for a while now. Still hasn’t.

**You should have felt it. That other one’s presence. Search for it in here. Draw out the items like you did the sword.**

Other one? Yeah, Nick’s definitely not about to summon another monster like Midnight into this creepy place. He turns and tries running, but that yields him nothing but more darkness, more of the giant puddle, and blood splattered on his jeans. 

Okay.

New plan. 

He doesn’t have much to work with here. 

Nick looks down at the machete. By focusing on it earlier, he was able to bring some light to this place. Sure, it also brought the blood, but at least he can see now. Maybe he can go a step further? Nick lifts it up, pointed away so the blood won’t get all over his hand. He focuses on it again, like he did in the car and like he was planning to do in the hotel room. 

It doesn’t grow hot like it did in the car. Whatever force was in it before is gone now. 

Nick closes his eyes and tries to concentrate.

**The presence, Nick. The green fire.**

But there’s no green fire left in the machete anymore. Nick’s hand grips the machete tighter, and that’s when he feels it.

A pulse. A repeating pulse. 

Not his heartbeat, although as he tracks the pulses, he realizes they match his heart. But the pulses are definitely coming from the machete. Nick opens his eyes cautiously.

Then he gasps. 

The blood that’s been pooling around him has risen up in a dark red maelstrom. Nick’s breathing picks up as he turns around, looking at the swirling mass of dark red that’s nearly swallowed him up. He’s in the eye of it, and as the machete continues to pulse, the storm around him grows stronger.

**This...**

Nick grips the machete and lifts it high. He notes that it’s no longer dripping blood anymore. That should be a good sign.

“I dunno what’s going on,” Nick says. “But I’m guessing it’s not something you were planning on, huh?”

**Nick—**

Nick throws all of his concentration into the machete and the pulses it’s making. His vision blurs and he feels instantly lightheaded, but he puts every ounce of energy he has into swinging it as hard as he can. 

The red storm around him erupts. Nick can see— through his hazy vision— the sword slice a bright red line through the blood and the darkness beyond. The red spreads, and from it emerges—

The hotel room. 

He’s back in the hotel, standing next to the bed. Geoff, Otto, and Kevin are all asleep on the floor, and Awsten’s facedown on the bed. The light is on, just like how it was before Midnight snatched them.

Nick blinks, feeling unsteady and dizzy. He lowers the machete which— he’s happy to see— is free of blood, along with his clothes. He’s alright. He’s out of there. 

Shaking, Nick hurries over to the bed to grab the sheath for the machete. He then reaches for Awsten and grabs his shoulder. 

“Hey,” he says. “Awsten. Awsten! Wake up!”

Awsten twitches and makes a noise. Okay, good sign. Nick leaves him and goes to his brother on the floor.

“Kevin!” He shakes him roughly. 

Kevin makes a whining sound and swats at him. “Nick… buzz off,” he mumbles. He rolls over and opens his eyes. “What?”

Nick’s so fucking relieved. He hugs the machete close to his chest and leans back, breathing hard. How the fuck… how did he do that? He looks at the machete for a moment, and then shakes his head. He might not understand it, but at least he knows— he knows he can do something about Midnight now. He can break out of Midnight’s grasp. Now he just needs to figure out how to do that for Kyle.

“How’d— what happened?” Awsten says. “Did Midnight let us go? You got the stuff for it?”

“No,” Nick says. He looks over his shoulder at Awsten. “I got out. With this,” he lifts up the machete. 

Awsten stares at it. “So… so it’s still—”

“Oh f-frick,” Otto’s voice says from the other side of the room. “Before we talk about— whatever the heck just happened… Yeah. Gimme a minute; the food’s here.”

He and Geoff leave the room. Nick takes a moment to breathe and appreciate all the light in the real world— even if it’s artificial light in a hotel room— and then he and Kevin get up to sit at the table. He lays the machete down on the table to draw it out again. It doesn’t look any different, but it definitely feels different. He can feel the smallest sensation of a pulse in it when he holds it unsheathed. 

Okay. 

Good.

He looks across the table at Kevin, who’s frowning at his phone.

“Did Joe text?” Nick asks hopefully.

“No,” Kevin says. He turns his phone around to show Nick. “It’s management. We have to get back to the festival ASAP. Looks like we’re not allowed to miss the masquerade after all.”


	22. Chapter 22

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> day 22: gothic
> 
> Ive been excited to write this chapter for a while :D

Midnight has been leaning against the door for what feels like… well, at least an hour. Maybe more. Jawn doesn’t have his phone on him, so there’s no way of telling the time. After freaking Jawn and Joe out with that declaration earlier, it sat down and closed Kyle’s eyes. 

Jawn and Joe have been sitting as far from Midnight as they can possibly get since then. Joe’s been whispering inaudibly to himself for a while, while Jawn’s been thinking. 

So Midnight can use both Awsten and Kyle’s powers. That’s most likely what it’s doing now, to force results to come faster. To force Nick to get what it wants. 

But the thing that’s been sticking with Jawn is… why? Doing all of this has to cost Midnight some significant energy— energy that it’s been stealing from psychics for years. What’s so important? What is so important that Midnight would risk its anonymity and its stockpiled energy, just for the sake of… time?

Jawn has a few ideas. He’s not going to talk about them with Joe— the guy’s already been through a lot. But unfortunately Joe and Midnight are his only company for now.

Damn it. He wishes he had some way of getting in touch with Awsten. 

Midnight opens Kyle’s eyes and stands up, making Joe jump. Jawn watches Midnight closely, hoping for any signs of exhaustion. Controlling both Awsten and Kyle at once can’t be easy. Maybe doing that drained the monster, at least a little bit. But all Midnight does is stretch Kyle’s body and crack his joints.

“We’re leaving,” Midnight announces in a monotone. “Get up. Don’t try to run.”

Jawn gets up slowly. 

“Where are we going?” Joe asks nervously.

Midnight smiles. “Back to the festival. You’ve got that masquerade, don’t you? Kyle was excited about it. I don’t want him to miss it. And you don’t need to get in trouble with your handlers.” It opens the door and beckons for Jawn and Joe to follow.

Jawn hesitates. Joe looks at him uneasily. 

“What are you planning?” Jawn says. 

The smile drops from Kyle’s face. “More than you need to understand, Jawn,” Midnight says. “But there’s no time for that. It’s a costume party. We need some costumes. I know just the place.”

Midnight takes a step through the door.

Jawn and Joe still don’t move. 

Midnight sighs. “You can walk, or I can drag you there.” Thick shadowy tendrils rise up from around him and race along the walls towards Jawn and Joe.

“We’re coming!” Joe says frantically, running across the room to catch up with Midnight. “Don’t, uh— you don’t need to do that. Please.”

Jawn reluctantly follows. The shadows have some substance to them, he notices. One of them pushes against one of his ankles as he walks at a pace that he’s assuming is slower than what Midnight wants. It’s not _too_ strong. He might be able to resist them, as long as he moves before Midnight makes too many of them. The only problem with that idea, however, is Joe. Jawn can’t just leave him with Midnight. 

So for now, he keeps his mouth shut and follows Midnight and Joe down a short stone corridor, then up a cramped flight of stairs. There’s a heavy-looking door at the top, but Midnight opens it with seemingly no effort. 

And… they’re in a basement. Or a cellar. It’s dark, but there’s a window set high on the wall, letting in moonlight from outside. 

Moonlight. Jawn’s heart sinks. Fuck. It’s fucking late. He knew time was passing, partly because he’s been getting hungry and thirsty, but— but when Midnight grabbed him earlier, it was daytime. Indignation rises in him for a moment, and it takes him considerable effort to control himself before he snaps at Midnight.

Midnight leads them through a wooden door that brings them up onto the street. Downtown Dove. Old Downtown, to be more specific. The fairgrounds are only a few blocks away, and he can hear noises from it. The streets here are decorated liberally with pumpkins, scarecrows, spiderwebs and giant fake spiders, glowing orange and yellow lights on strands, skeletons. It’s so… normal. Jawn slows down to look around him, hoping to see someone and maybe call for help—

The shadows push at his back.

“Come on, Jawn,” Midnight says. 

Jawn glares at Kyle’s back, but he picks up his pace. 

Midnight leads the three of them along empty streets— which makes sense, now that Jawn thinks about it; anyone who’s normally out here is at the festival right now— to a tiny little shop with a faintOPEN light in the window. A little bell rings as Midnight opens the door.

“Welcome,” says an old woman sitting at the front desk. “Can I help you find anything?”

Jawn opens his mouth but a shadow grabs one of his ankles and squeezes tight. 

“Just point us to the men’s section,” Midnight says, using Kyle’s polite voice. 

The woman beams and gets up to walk the trio over to a corner of the shop. Jawn looks around at the racks of clothes. It’s all… black and gothic. Victorian, steampunk… it looks like the kind of stuff that vampires wear. Not that vampires are real. It’s all very… excessive. 

“Why are we here?” Jawn asks Midnight.

“I told you,” Midnight says, looking at an embroidered suit jacket on display. “It’s a costume event tonight. Pick something out.”

“Well, if you’re paying,” Joe says, walking to a rack and pulling out an excessively gaudy black and violet coat. He tries it on, makes a noise of approval, and heads towards a table with pants laid out on it.

Jawn glances back at the old woman. She’s returned to the front desk and is reading a newspaper. It’s too far to the front door, and Jawn doubts that— even if they make it out— Midnight will let them go far.

“Jawn, if you’re not going to pick something out, then I’ll pick it for you,” Midnight says. It’s found matching pants for the embroidered vest, as well as a jacket. And it’s looking at top hats, of all things. 

“No, I can find something,” Jawn says. He carefully moves around to the other side of the rack of clothes and grabs a white shirt and a black suit jacket that are in his size. 

“If you need it, there’s a fitting room just past the shoes,” the old woman says.

“Thank you,” Midnight says. 

Jawn’s hopes pick up again. He grabs a few more things and, after confirming Midnight and Joe are still browsing, goes into the fitting room. His outfit doesn’t take long to put on: it’s just the white shirt, the black jacket, black pants, a large ribbon around his neck and some belt-thing that looks like a collection of chain necklaces.

It’ll be easy enough to move in this. 

Jawn exits the fitting room. Midnight looks him over and shrugs. 

“It’ll do,” it says. 

“Joe, are you ready?” Jawn says. 

“Hm… no, not yet,” Joe says, from behind a shelf full of ruffled shirts. Jawn goes around to look. His eye twitches when he sees the mound of things Joe’s carrying. Does this idiot not realize they’ve got a chance to escape here?

Jawn takes his arm and drags him towards the fitting room. “Just go with what you have,” he says.

“But I want a headpiece and an old timey pocket watch—” Joe protests. Jawn just shoves him into the fitting room. He nearly runs into Midnight when he turns around. 

“Here,” Midnight says, holding something out. 

Jawn takes it. It looks like the thing he’s got around his waist. 

“It goes on your jacket,” Midnight says. It takes the thing back and clasps it on. “There. Come on, don’t you want to look cool?”

“It’s not the first thing on my mind,” Jawn admits.

Midnight laughs. “Fair enough. But _I’m_ not showing up there unless I… look the part, as Kyle would say. I should see if this place has eyeliner.” 

Joe takes forever in the fitting room, complaining about how he wants a dozen more unnecessary things and driving Jawn up the wall. In that time, Midnight finds eyeliner and offers it to Jawn, who refuses as politely as he can. 

Joe comes out of the fitting room looking like… well. Like a flamboyant vampire in his goth phase. The coat he’s wearing is so long and dark that it looks like a dress at first, and all the ruffles in his dark violet shirt only contribute further to it. He’s also got some kind of clip-on black and silver earrings and a matching choker.

“Perfect,” Midnight says. 

As soon as the fitting room door shuts behind Midnight, Jawn grabs Joe’s hand and runs. He wants to apologize to the lady for essentially stealing the stuff he’s wearing, but it’s too risky to stop. He has no idea how much time it’ll be before Midnight realizes what they’re doing.

They don’t even make it to the front door before the shadows catch Jawn’s legs and lock him to the ground.

“No!” he yells, trying to pull his legs out of the shadows. It’s fruitless. They’re strong, despite how they felt earlier. Fuck. He’s fucked up. 

“Jawn…” Midnight says. Jawn goes tense. He can’t even look back to see how pissed Midnight is, but judging from Kyle’s tone, it’s pretty damn pissed. “I told you not to run. I…” it sighs again. “I’m not going to hurt you. I know you won’t believe me… but that doesn’t matter.”

Jawn takes a shaky breath and looks behind him. Midnight is dressed already, somehow. It looks like an evil overlord. It wears its gothic outfit— black jacket, black shirt, black pants with a silver belt buckle, black boots, black top hat, black tie fixed perfectly, all embroidered with silver thread— as comfortably as a second skin, oozing confidence and power. Thick shadows rise up behind it, twisting like vines. Or tails. 

Jawn and Joe remain rooted to the floor, held fast by Midnight’s shadows. Midnight stares disdainfully at Jawn for a few seconds, and then turns. Towards the old woman.

“No!” Jawn says. “Don’t—”

“This isn’t because of you, Jawn,” Midnight says. “She’s another psychic. She doesn’t need it.”

Jawn can’t tear his eyes away. The woman already looks drowsy, and Midnight walks right up to her and places a hand against her shoulder. The light around her dims for a few seconds, and then Midnight moves back. 

“Done,” it announces. It takes out something— a handful of cash, Jawn recognizes— and sets it on the counter next to the old woman. “Now… can I trust you to walk to the festival on your own, or do I have to drag you?”

Jawn grits his teeth. “We can walk.”


	23. Chapter 23

Halloween Fest sounds just as lively as it was when they left earlier. Nick and Kevin hop out of the car before Awsten, Geoff, and Otto drive off to get a parking space. Their manager is losing his mind over their disappearing act, and it’s not like they can explain themselves.

Nick can imagine how the truth would go. ‘Sorry for leaving and not telling you, but Kyle Knight— yeah the December’s Tragedy guy— got possessed by this superpowered entity of fear and it’s holding Joe and Kyle’s brother’s boyfriend hostage until I find the shit on its scavenger hunt list. I’ve got one thing already, see this machete? Yeah it was dripping blood in a dream dimension earlier, and I used it to escape. Cool, huh?’ 

Nick is still carrying the machete, but he hides it behind his back as they catch up with their frantic manager.

“Where have you been?” he says. “And where’s Joe?”

“Joe’s… uh,” Nick says. 

“He’s,” Kevin gestures at the festival beyond them, lit up with bright colored lights, alive with music and voices. “He’s already here. His phone just died. We’ll find him, don’t worry.”

Their manager isn’t pleased by that vague explanation. “Maybe I should stick with you for the rest of the night.”

“No, we’ll be okay,” Nick says.

“We’ll tweet something for the fans, get Joe, and leave as soon as we can,” Kevin promises. “And we’ll be ready in the morning.”

Their manager is still frowning. “You can’t just— I try to give you three as much freedom as I can, but today— we can’t be doing this. You need to at least keep in touch. Is everything alright?”

No, everything has gone to pieces. Nick smiles. “Everything’s great. This place is so much fun. We just lost track of time, honestly.”

After a few more fake reassurances and promises to finish up early, their manager relents and hands over three elaborate masquerade masks. “If you can, get a picture with all three of you wearing these. It’s alright that you don’t have costumes, and you don’t even have to show up at the dance party. Just— something nice. For Twitter.”

Nick takes one of the masks. It’s kind of elaborate, with black feathers and beads and lace all intricately put together. No glitter, and he’s not sure whether he’s happy or disappointed about that. Overall, the mask isn’t something he’d pick out on his own, but it’s pretty cool. He puts it over his face and looks at the one Kevin’s got. His doesn’t have any feathers, but it has a cluster of black roses at the top left. 

“Don’t stay out too late,” their manager says. “When you’re done, let me know and I’ll drive you back—”

“No, we’ve got a ride,” Nick says. 

“Do you? Who is it?”

Nick and Kevin exchange glances. “December’s Tragedy,” Nick says, being honest for once. “Their, uh. Bassist.”

Their manager looks like he wants to push for more details, so Nick makes a flimsy excuse and just starts running. He’ll deal with the consequences later. Kevin catches up after only a slight pause, carrying the mask meant for Joe, and the two stop once Nick’s sure they’re out of sight. 

“Do you think Joe’s really here?” Nick asks Kevin.

Kevin looks at the mask, and then takes out his phone to type up a text. 

“Midnight’s gotta be watching us,” Kevin says. “It know you did— whatever you did at the hotel. Breaking out of that shadow world with your machete. And Joe might—” 

Nick gives Kevin a look. Kevin forces out a laugh.

“Yeah… Joe’s probably not going to be reminding the monster about his schedule for the day,” Kevin admits.

The screen of Kevin’s phone lights up with a text. From Joe.

From Midnight.

_Yes. We’re waiting for you. _

Nick looks back up at Kevin, who’s clearly anxious. Nick can’t blame him for being terrified. Not after all that’s happened, just in the course of a few hours. And he knows Midnight isn’t going to be happy that he doesn’t have anything to show it. 

But that doesn’t matter. He can do that thing with the machete. He can— he can face Midnight. For Kyle’s sake. And Joe, of course. 

“Hey!” Awsten calls from a distance away. Nick turns to find Awsten, Geoff, and Otto all approaching. All of them are wearing masquerade masks as well, but theirs are all bright neon colors. Awsten’s is pink, Geoff’s is green, and Otto’s is yellow. It sorta makes Nick think of power rangers. 

“I see you’ve also taken the time to accessorize,” Otto says. 

“You look like goths,” Awsten cackles. “That’s so hilarious. Goth pop boybanders. I need to get a picture of that. When Kyle gets un-possessed, he’s going to lose his mind.”

Nick can’t help his reaction to that. The reminder that Kyle is actually a fan of their band is… while it reminds him of the stakes, it also makes him smile. So… okay. Sure. They take a moment to pose for pictures with each other, but the light-heartedness quickly fades when Nick brings up the text from Midnight. 

“They’re here, somewhere,” Awsten says quietly. “And since Midnight said ‘we’, it’s got Jawn and Joe too.”

“Yeah,” Nick says.

“They could be anywhere though,” Geoff points out. “Should we check back at the stage?”

Nick thinks about it, and then looks at Awsten in hopes he’ll have an idea. 

Awsten’s arms are crossed and he’s staring at the bright lights of the rest of the festival in the distance. “I think… Midnight’s not going to want to deal with attention from anyone else. Other psychics or festival attendees noticing what’s going on is, like… the opposite of what it’s going for. Right?”

Nick nods. “So… not in the busiest part. Not where the masquerade party is going on.”

“So… where?” Kevin says. “The entire festival is full of people. Are there any, like, empty tents that you think it’ll be hiding in?” 

Awsten shakes his head. “No. I bet it wants us to find it. But it can’t just leave Jawn and Joe out in the open for anyone to see, so—”

“Hey guys?” Geoff says suddenly. “Not to interrupt— I mean, you’re doing a great job working this out, but the December’s Tragedy Twitter just DM-ed me a picture.”

Everyone crowds around Geoff’s phone. It’s a picture of Kyle, Joe, and Jawn, standing in front of a brightly-lit ride.

“Why are they there?” Awsten says. “Wouldn’t that draw too much attention?”

“It doesn’t matter why,” Nick says. “Midnight’s giving us a hint. Let’s go!”

He leads the way into the bustling nighttime festival. There’s still so much going on— food, vendors, games— but Nick doesn’t have time to stop and look at everything. He keeps his eyes fixated on the carnival games that the group is rapidly approaching. They stop at the entrance to the carnival area and look down the two bright pathways lined on either side with noisy games covered in lights. From what Nick can see, there are dozens of spinning rides, small roller coasters, a couple of fun houses, and a ferris wheel in the distance. 

“I can’t really tell what it is,” Otto says, looking over the picture with Geoff. “It’s bright, but it’s blurry.”

“The ferris wheel?” Geoff suggests.

“No,” Awsten says. “Those _do_ have privacy, but there’s not enough space. For this kind of confrontation, I think Midnight would want to keep some distance between us.”

“What else is there?” Kevin says. “If it’s a mirror maze, then I refuse— I’m not doing that shit.”

“That would be too cramped,” Awsten says.

Nick squints. There’s something in the distance that’s bright. He starts walking, keeping his eyes on it. The others follow after him, still making and rejecting suggestions.

“They could have moved, too,” Kevin says. “Midnight might be taking us on a wild goose chase. Maybe it thinks those things you’re supposed to find are here?”

“No,” Nick says, coming to a stop. “It’s there.”

The carousel.

It’s spinning slowly, just ahead of them. Despite the lights and the soft music playing on the ride, there’s no line waiting outside the gate. As Nick draws closer, he sees why. The operator is slumped over at his controls, asleep. There are numerous signs that claim the ride is under maintenance. 

And yet… the ride is still running. The horses dance up and down and the ride turns… and Nick sees them.

Kyle— Midnight, standing on the outer edge of the carousel. And Jawn and Joe, both seated on painted horses and looking uncomfortable. Midnight raises an arm and waves. 

“You found us!” it calls. 

“That fucker,” Awsten growls. He runs past Nick and leaps over the gate. Nick runs after him. 

Awsten reaches the carousel first. He jumps onto the slow-moving ride and makes a mad dash for Jawn. Before he gets close enough, however, a thick tendril of darkness grabs him around the waist and drags him back. Nick climbs onto the ride but stops, all too suddenly aware of all the crawling shadows on the floor of the ride. He looks back to see if Kevin, Otto, and Geoff have caught up— they have— and he also sees, with a start, that there are even more shadows surrounding the ride. Hiding them from view, most likely.

It doesn’t matter that they’re effectively out in the open. Midnight’s clearly powerful enough to keep the stage it’s chosen private.

“Let them go!” Awsten yells at Midnight, pulling against the shadow holding him in place. “Jawn!”

“Awsten,” Jawn says. “We can’t—” 

“We’re fucking stuck,” Joe mutters bitterly. Nick looks and sees they’ve both got shadows wrapped around their hands and legs, binding them to the carousel horses they’re on. He also realizes all three of them are dressed like… well. Like they’re planning on winning the masquerade costume contest later in the night. Joe looks like a gothic prince, Jawn looks like a Victorian emo, and Midnight’s made Kyle look… so fucking sexy. And intimidating. But the unfairly attractive kind of intimidating.

“You made it here,” Midnight says, smiling at first Awsten and then Nick. “Good job. And you’ve still got your sword. Even better. Now… what happened about finding the other two things I asked for?”


	24. Chapter 24

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> day 24: transformations
> 
> ok so originally my list was a bit different but Im changing it up a bit. I didnt want to slow down the climax with a flashback right before it, so I'll write that stuff after the events of harvester are done. basically I'll just write a short prequel during the last two days of october :3

The carousel continues to rotate and play its music in the wake of Midnight’s question. Nick’s hand shakes where it’s gripping the sheath of the machete. The shadows all around them are definitely creepy, but Nick’s reminding himself that he can fight them. Probably. He’s hoping it won’t come down to slashing the blade at the shadows that are holding his brother and Jawn captive.

“You really think kidnapping people and threatening us was the way to make us do what you want?” Awsten spits at Midnight. “Fuck you. We know what you’re up to now. Tracking down shit that can hurt you and making it less effective, right? But that machete still has some power over you. Since Nick used it to break out of your little thing earlier.”

Midnight glances at the machete. “Things aren’t as simple as you think,” it says. 

Nick draws the machete and points it straight at Midnight. It feels wrong, since it’s also Kyle… but he focuses his mind on the shadows swirling at Midnight’s feet instead. He’s not going to hurt Kyle. He’s just going to do something about Midnight. 

“Get out of Kyle,” Nick says with a confidence that he didn’t realize he had. “Let Joe and Jawn go.”

Midnight smirks. It strides forward, one step at a time. Beside Nick, Awsten swears and strains against the shadows holding him back. 

“No, that sword is quite useless right now,” Midnight says. It reaches out a hand towards the blade. 

Nick freezes. Should he move—

Midnight grabs the blade. Nick draws in a breath sharply. Midnight’s going to hurt Kyle— and he _plays guitar_— “What are—”

“Oh my god,” Kevin says.

“What the fuck are you doing?” Awsten says. “Are you trying to hurt Kyle? Stop it!”

“You felt something in the sword, didn’t you?” Midnight says, ignoring everyone else and staring straight at Nick. “The green fire. _Her_ green fire.”

“Whose green fire?” Awsten says. 

“The other entity,” Jawn says. “The one that Midnight’s…”

“I…” Nick is torn between trying to feel that energy again versus trying to get the machete out of Kyle’s hand. But the machete still has that faint pulse from earlier. It’s nothing like the heat of the fire. “Before, yeah. I felt that. But it’s gone. I can’t feel it anymore. It just—”

Midnight leans even closer. Nick’s so terrified he’s going to hurt Kyle. 

“Now… I know you’re not a psychic,” Midnight says. “But I need you to look for that sensation again. Do it… for Joe. Or Kyle. Whichever one motivates you more.” Behind Midnight, Joe yells in protest.

Nick narrows his eyes. 

Fuck this guy. 

He’s so done with letting Midnight boss him around. Midnight’s done nothing but make them run all over Dove, chasing half-answers and vague psychic energy leads on its selfish goal, all while dangling Joe, Jawn, and Kyle’s well-being in front of them like a carrot on a string. Fuck that. 

Nick feels for that pulse and braces himself. He throws as much focus into the pulse as he can. It resonates, matching his heart and filling his head with the sound and the sensation of the beat. 

Midnight lets go and backs away suddenly, right as the machete actually pulses in Nick’s hands, vibrating. Like it’s alive. Nick’s focus on the machete doesn’t waver, and he points it towards Midnight again. 

And then

the machete

warps. 

The blade ripples and changes shape. 

Midnight looks shocked, which only fuels Nick further. He keeps doing whatever the hell he’s doing, and the machete transforms, somehow, impossibly, into a broadsword. It’s still a deep red, and it still pulses in Nick’s chest, but it’s— it feels different. Better. It feels less like holding a weird maybe-magical artifact and more like holding something he’s meant to be holding.

“What did you just do?” Kevin says, gaping at the sword.

“Is— is it— does it feel stronger?” Awsten says, excitement leaking into his voice. “Ha-ha! How about now, Midnight? You little bitch!”

Midnight backs away, glaring at the sword. “You have no idea—”

“Then tell us!” Nick says, taking a threatening step towards Midnight. “What is all of this about? What’s this other entity?”

Jawn speaks up. “Why do you need to do all of this now? Is… is time running out?” 

Midnight looks pissed off now. “Fine. You really think— you really think that I’m your enemy. I’m not. I told you, I’m not here to hurt you. But _she_ will. Without a shred of hesitation. She is ruthless and cold and… and anything I can do to weaken her, before she comes back, I’ll do it.”

“Who is she?” Otto says.

“How is the sword connected to her?” Jawn asks.

“No, shut up Jawn, who the fuck is she?” Awsten demands.

“I’m not going to say her name,” Midnight says, sounding annoyed. “But— that sword is a vessel. For her power.”

“So it _can_ hurt you,” Nick says. 

“Of course it can hurt me,” Midnight snaps. “But if you try and use it against me, it’s going to hurt Kyle too. Even if you use it in a dream or in the astral-spirit world. Are you prepared for that, Nick?”

“Then stop possessing him!” Awsten yells. “Fight us without using Kyle’s body or his powers!”

“Wait,” Jawn says. “Wait, so… if the sword belongs to this other entity, then why can Nick use it?”

A sinking feeling settles in Nick’s chest. “Am I—?”

“He’s not psychic,” Midnight says. “He just has a very specific kind of spark inside him. That spark will react to items such as the sword.” It grinds Kyle’s teeth. “And… I realize now that trying to force the other two items to appear was never going to work. It’s never been easy, forcing my way when _she_ is concerned. Kyle’s visions showed me Nick finding all of the items, but there was no way to see how soon it would happen.”

“So what, you’re just going to apologize for being impatient?” Awsten says hotly. “After all you did—”

“Awsten, shut up,” Jawn says. “Midnight’s willing to tell us about this thing; don’t you want to—”

“Midnight fucking kidnapped you,” Awsten yells back. “I’m more interested in getting it to fucking leave us alone.”

“Even when I leave tonight, this won’t be the end,” Midnight says. “She _will_ come. That is inevitable. And you won’t want the other two items to end up in her hands.”

“But is the sword… less effective now?” Nick says. “Since the green fire is gone?”

Midnight looks at the sword with consideration. “Yes…”

“So, this other entity…” Kevin says. “It’s more dangerous than you? And it’s got some kind of link with Nick?”

“She has no connection with Nick himself,” Midnight says. “And yes. She is more dangerous than you can imagine. I cannot let her return and do whatever she likes.”

“Yeah, it’ll turn into something like today, won’t it,” Awsten says. “Listen, I don’t care about your beef with this other thing. I’m still pissed at you. No matter how you try to convince us you were doing all this for a good reason— I don’t care. Get the fuck out of my brother and let my boyfriend go.”

“Alright,” Midnight says.

“Wait!” Nick says. There’s still a million questions he has.

“Awsten!” Jawn says, in a scolding tone.

“When you have more questions for me, you can find me by using your powers, Awsten,” Midnight says. “I’ll leave you alone for now. But I’ll be back soon. And when the time comes… you’ll be glad you have me on your side.”

“You’re not on our side,” Awsten says. “You’re on your own side.”

Midnight shrugs. “Believe what you will.” 

“One last question!” Nick says frantically. “Kyle— has he… does he know what’s been happening? When you leave him, is he going to be okay?”

Midnight actually smiles at that. “Nick… I’m going to have to change my opinion of you. Kyle is fine. He’s been asleep. He certainly needs the rest. Take care of him… I’ll know if you don’t.”

Nick opens his mouth to try and squeeze in another question, but Midnight closes Kyle’s eyes. All around them, the shadows vanish. Joe and Jawn jump off their carousel horses. The noise of the festival grows louder as the barrier around the carousel vanishes.

Kyle starts to tip over, and Nick races forwards to catch him.


	25. Chapter 25

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> day 25: fog

Kyle wakes up slowly. 

He knows he’s waking up, as opposed to being in another vision, because everything around him is louder. There’s a distinct lack of shadows and wolves and women laughing over dead bodies. The sensations of— something beneath him, something close around him— are more real. His eyes are shut and he squeezes them more tightly closed for a moment. Wherever he is, it’s bright. 

He opens his eyes cautiously. He can’t quite remember when he fell asleep, but… he can always figure that out from context clues. Starting with: where is he?

He blinks. Someone’s face is incredibly close to his. Above him, looking down. And that person—

Oh god. Nick Jonas is holding him. Kyle’s in Nick Jonas’s arms. 

Kyle sputters out something— he’s not even sure if he makes any sense— and flails to get out of his humiliating position. Damn it, this is even worse than the previous morning, when the Jonas brothers walked in on him on the floor of the Pumpkin Space Cafe. 

“I’m so sorry,” Kyle manages. “I, uh, I must have passed out, I’m just— I’m sorry—”

“Kyle, it’s okay,” Nick says. He lets go of Kyle but he doesn’t move away, kneeling down on the floor of this… carousel?... right beside Kyle. When the heck did he get on a carousel? A frantic look around confirms it’s still night, so… he must have sleep-walked after their set?

Fuck, he can’t even remember watching it. And he’s been looking forward to it so much! He thought he’s been getting better at going without sleep. 

“Kyle, are you okay?” Awsten sticks his head closer, and Kyle’s stomach sinks.

Oh Awsten is here. Great. He’s probably made fun of Kyle and— Wait. Not just Jawn. But Otto and Geoff too? Weren’t they going straight home after work? Kevin Jonas and Joe Jonas are here too. It’s really weird how they’re all crowded around Kyle. He shifts uncomfortably, wanting to get up off the floor. They’ve got to be obstructing the ride, anyway.

“What do you remember?” Jawn says, looking weirdly serious.

Kyle frowns in confusion. “Remember?” he repeats. “Uh… the show?” He sort of remembers it, at least. Following Nick and going to stand at the side. He must have been on the verge of falling asleep while he watched them perform. He feels fine now, though, so he’s guessing he’s had a couple hours’ nap since then. “How’d I get here? Was I… um. Sleepwalking?”

Awsten grabs Nick’s shoulder and gives him a look. Kyle tries to follow the silent conversation, but he’s honestly completely thrown by it.

“Listen,” Awsten says. He stands up and reaches down to pull Kyle to his feet. “I’ll explain everything tomorrow, okay? You’ve had… a really intense day. Psychic bullshit.”

Kyle goes still, eyes darting to where Nick and his brothers are, like. Right there.

“It’s okay,” Nick says. 

“We know about you guys,” Kevin says. “And… yeah, Awsten can tell you. It’s a long story.”

“Long?” Kyle repeats. It can’t have been more than… maybe four hours? He’s always disoriented after sleeping with as many visions as he remembers, but the festival is still going on around them. It can’t be that late. Probably isn’t even midnight yet.

“Kyle,” Nick says, drawing Kyle’s attention back to him. Kyle blinks slowly at him and he suddenly realizes something.

“When did— you all changed clothes,” he says. Not only that, but Nick is holding a sword. “It’s—”

Oh no.

He feels sick.

“It’s still Tuesday, right?”

The silence tells him the answer. 

Geoff speaks up first. “Kyle! Uh… It’s good to see you’re back to yourself. So… yeah. Me and Otto are gonna… go home. Goodnight! See you tomorrow morning!” And the two of them bail.

Awsten sighs. “Kyle. I know you’re freaking out right now. But everything’s okay.”

It’s definitely not okay. Kyle lost a whole fucking day. That at least explains how he got dragged through so many unsettling visions, but… he hates the fact that he’s apparently been doing shit since then. He’s sleep-walked before, but. Damn it. He just can’t fucking remember anything since the… since the previous day.

“I promise I’ll explain everything tomorrow—”

“No,” Kyle says. “Now.”

“We kinda have to get off the ride,” Joe says. “Before the operator wakes up.”

Awsten and Jawn lead Kyle and the Jonas brothers off the ride and to a relatively uncrowded section of the carnival area. The more Kyle looks around, the more he feels bad. 

Something definitely happened while he was out.

His mind is going wild with suspicions about what that something is.

“Okay, talk,” Kyle demands. 

“No,” Awsten says stubbornly. “We’ll talk once you’re home, how about that? You just… you’ve been through a lot, okay? Just… take some time. By yourself or with— them. I need to… I need to have some time with Jawn.”

Kyle’s still too shaken by all the revelations of the past few minutes to chase after Awsten and punch him in the face. He’s just so in the dark about everything. Something happened. It seems like everyone’s spooked, but they won’t fucking tell him anything.

Joe clears his throat awkwardly. “Well. Um. Not to be insensitive or to like, disregard the fact that you’re freaking out or anything, but Kyle… you’re uh. Dressed for the masquerade party. Which is still going on. So if you want to go… We have to show up and take pictures anyway. And it’d be cool to have you too.”

“Are you fucking serious,” Nick says to Joe. 

“You want to go to a party after everything that’s happened?” Kevin says.

Joe shrugs and points at Kyle. “I mean! Look at him! Midnight picked out something pretty damn cool, right?”

As the Jonas brothers prepare to argue, Kyle sighs loudly. “Sure?” It’s easier than trying to pick apart more subtle hints and references to whatever has happened. “I wanna go.”

Of course, that means that they have to stop at a food vendor first, because as soon as they’re walking, Joe complains about how hungry he is. Kyle realizes how hungry he is as well once they’re there, and Nick buys him a ton of food before he can protest about it. It’s really sweet, but the chunk of time that Kyle is missing ruins the mood for him, so he can’t really appreciate it as much. He still flushes under Nick’s soft gaze, and is glad the multicolored lights that hang over their picnic table conceal his blush.

“Hey,” Nick says gently as they’re finishing. “It’s okay. I’m just— I’m really glad you’re okay.”

Kyle’s appetite is abruptly gone. Okay. So whatever happened… might have made Nick pity him. Great.

He tries not to let the shame get to him. He fails. Hot tears threaten to spill from his eyes. Nope. That’s not happening. He’s not going to cry and make everything worse. Even if it’s out of pity… he’s got a night with Nick Jonas. He wants to at least make some kind of positive memory out of it, so he can remember it later when Nick’s moved on to someone better and he’s still playing tiny shows in basements.

He can tell it to people after those shows. ‘Ha, yeah. Once, I spent three days with the Jonas Brothers. No, they definitely don’t remember me, but I’ve got this picture to prove it.’

He can write a song about that. Hell, he can write a whole album about it.

Nick stays close to Kyle’s side as they head to the hall where the masquerade party is being held. It makes him a little dizzy, because as thrilled as he is over the action, he’s still sure that Nick’s just being nice. Maybe even… protective? In the aftermath of whatever mystery happened while Kyle was sleepwalking.

“There’s really good light here,” Joe says, stopping them just outside of the hall. “Here, Kevin, you take the picture.”

“Me? Don’t we all have to be in it?” Kevin says, but takes the phone from Joe anyway.

“Yeah, but you need to make sure you get the three of us looking good in it,” Joe says. “Since we’re dressed up nicer than you.”

Kevin grumbles under his breath, but he holds the phone out as far as he can so everyone can crowd into place. Kyle hesitates, just on the edge.

“You sure you— I can take the picture of the three of you,” he says, trying to escape.

“No, I want you in the picture,” Nick insists. And he. Puts. His arm. Around Kyle’s waist.

Kyle’s mind goes blank.

“Come on, Kyle, smile or something!” Joe says. “Like ten thousand girls on Twitter are gonna see this!”

Nick’s arm is around his waist. His hand is— 

Someone jabs Kyle in the stomach and he shrieks.

Kevin takes the picture. 

“Oh, no, it’s gonna be horrible.” Kyle says, pulling out of Nick’s grip and pushing forward to look at the picture.

“Oh well, it’s posted,” Kevin says. “And you look great. Look at it!”

Kyle looks. And, okay, he’ll admit he doesn’t look bad in it. His clothes alone are amazing— clothes that he knows he doesn’t own but loves anyway and… wait is that eyeliner? Kyle shakes that thought out of his mind and looks at the rest of the picture. He’s leaning against Nick in a way that can be explained as them just standing close for the sake of the picture, but Kyle knows the reality. At least it’s not obvious by the angle of the picture. And the sword that Nick’s got for whatever reason is also out of the frame. Joe takes up the majority of the picture, with his ostentatious gothic outfit. It’s a good picture. He’s going to have to save it. And print it out and frame it.

The caption on the picture says ‘check out our new friend dt_kyleknight’s band decemberstragedy and if you’re at dovehalloweenfest!, come say hi!’ Kyle’s face heats up reading it.

“You don’t have to promo my band,” he says. “Thanks.”

Kevin throws an arm around him and gives him a quick tight hug. “Hey, we love your music! If we can get some Jonas brothers fans to check you guys out, then it’ll be the second best thing that’ll have happened this week. Second best after meeting you.”

Kyle covers his face with his hands. He just— he can’t believe how this is happening to him right now. He’s going to start crying any second now. Because the Jonas brothers are so unbelievably nice in person. And because this isn’t going to last past tonight and maybe tomorrow. Time will pass, the tweet will be forgotten, and so will he. 

“Hey,” Nick says. “Can you two go in first? I wanna—”

“Why?” Joe says.

“Sure!” Kevin says, grabbing Joe and dragging him away. 

Kyle looks away from Nick. If he makes eye contact, now he’s going to cry and he won’t be able to stop. He’s such a fucking disaster.

“Kyle,” Nick says. 

“Sorry,” Kyle says. 

“It’s not— look, nothing that happened is your fault.”

Kyle’s fault? 

What?

Oh. Right. The sleepwalking. All of that crashes back down on Kyle like a wave. He shakes a little. This evening has been too much, and he doesn’t even know what happened during most of it. Well… he has all those visions but— but he can ignore those. That’s what he always does, after all. 

Kyle looks warily back at Nick. “I… you can’t— I can’t believe that. Awsten won’t tell me anything. You all— you all are acting nice to me. It’s—”

“Not your fault,” Nick says. “And we’re hanging out with you because we want to. We… we didn’t get a chance to do that today. Not like how I was hoping—”

“I’ve got a feeling,” Kyle says, interrupting before Nick can get his stupid hopes up again. “You know about psychic stuff now so… so it was psychic-related, wasn’t it?”

Nick is silent. Kyle can’t look at his face, so he looks at the sword that Nick is still carrying. Not that he’s too confused— Nick’s definitely the kind of guy who deserves to have his own sword and carry it everywhere— but no, yeah, he’s confused by it. Why does he have it? Does it have something to do with whatever happened?

“Yeah,” Nick says. “You… you got possessed. And Awsten—”

Kyle’s mouth drops open and he backs away a step. “What.”

Possessed.

But… but that should be impossible.

Although that certainly would explain how so many of the vision were… 

Nick reaches a hand out towards him. “It’s okay!”

“No, it’s not!” Kyle exclaims, shaking his head rapidly. “I— I’m sorry, but I have to go. I— fuck Awsten, he’s going to tell me everything.”

“Wait,” Nick says, catching Kyle’s arm and holding it, not tightly, but not letting him go. “Listen, Kyle. No matter what you find out… I didn’t just go through it because Midnight wanted me to. I was worried about you. And I know you’re going to be upset… but don’t blame yourself.”

Too late. Kyle’s blaming himself. _Possessed?_

“Tomorrow,” Nick says. “I still want to see you tomorrow. I’ll be there. To watch you. And if you want to, I want to hang out with you afterwards. Before I have to perform. Okay?”

Kyle wants to pull out of Nick’s grip. He wants to run and hide and never see Nick again, so he doesn’t pull him into any more psychic bullshit. He wants to apologize forever. He wants to break down and cry. He wants to go punch Awsten in the stomach for not telling him this stuff immediately.

He wants to go to sleep for another twenty four hours and never see another vision.

He’s so tired.

“Bye,” he manages to say before pulling away from Nick and running in the opposite direction. The tears start flowing as soon as he remembers how to breathe again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this chapter was supposed to be happy but kyle is an emo and in the process of writing him, I accidentally made this a bit angsty


	26. Chapter 26

Nick’s been regretting so many things from the previous night. He should have done something more for Kyle. He should have said something else before Kyle ran off. But, after running through the different possibilities in his head, he’s come to grudgingly accept that all of them would have ended just as badly.

The thing is, Kyle needs time. And space. Nick knows he personally would freak out if he suddenly woke up to news that something had been possessing his body and threatening a bunch of people he cares about. So he gets it.

That doesn’t mean he has to be happy with how last night went. 

He tried texting Kyle, but every message went unread. He stopped after five messages, not wanting to seem pushy or overbearing. Kyle didn’t want to answer, and Nick could totally understand that. 

Now he’s waiting at the backstage area again, keeping his eyes out for Kyle. Nobody from December’s Tragedy has even arrived yet, but Nick’s here, along with Joe and Kevin.

“The things we do for you,” Joe says, yawning loudly. “You owe us. I could be asleep right now.”

“You could have stayed at the hotel,” Nick points out.

“Nope, I gotta be here,” Joe says. “I’ve got baby pictures of you ready on my phone, so I can embarrass you if you start acting too cool.”

Nick rolls his eyes, but inwardly, he’s relieved that Joe’s doing alright. After what he went through yesterday… well, Joe might be in a bit of denial about all that. Nick should make sure to check on him later. Although Joe was very vocally pleased about the gothic costume he got from Midnight. Maybe he’s already figured out how to move on past the whole kidnapping thing.

“What are you going to say to him once he shows up?” Kevin asks.

Nick curls in on himself. He’s honestly not sure. It depends on how Kyle’s handling all of this, really. There’s a lot of things he _wants_ to say to him, but Kyle probably isn’t ready for a lot of them. 

He shrugs and tugs on the makeshift sword belt that he constructed last night with an orange belt stolen from Joe and a lot of black gaff tape. It’s a bit weird, carrying this thing around, but he thinks he’ll get used to it soon. 

“I don’t know,” he says to Kevin. 

“You gonna keep that on during the show?” Joe says, pointing at the sword.

“No,” Nick scoffs. 

Nick’s saved from more questioning from his brothers as Scott’s van pulls up. His heart jumps in his chest when he sees Kyle in the front passenger seat. Kyle absolutely sees Nick, but he looks away. Nick frowns. 

He hurries over to the van as Scott parks it. Kyle gets out of the car and tries to busy himself, but Nick catches up with him. 

“Hey,” he says, as gently as possible.

Kyle doesn’t look at him. “Look—”

“Awsten told you everything, right?” Nick says.

Kyle nods. “Yeah. Which is exactly why— I don’t get why you’d still want to—”

“There’s nothing you could have done to stop Midnight from doing all of that,” Nick says. Kyle is practically shrinking in on himself. “Literally— the only reason Midnight stopped is because it finally realized that it was asking the impossible. Midnight was the one pulling all the strings. You were just…”

Just unfortunate enough to be Midnight’s chosen vessel.

Kyle runs a hand through the back of his hair. “I… I know that. But I still feel like— Midnight pretended to be me. And I feel so shitty—”

“It’s not your fault,” Nick says. He aches to reach out and hold Kyle, but— as much as his heart wants to— he knows it won’t help. Kyle’s probably gotten plenty of hugs from his brothers already. Nick is… still basically a stranger to him. No matter how much he wants to be more than that.

Kyle finally looks up at Nick. His eyes are full of torment and self-doubt. “But… Midnight is connected to _my family_,” he says. “Technically, we pulled you guys into our bullshit—”

“Hey,” Nick grabs the handle of the sword and shakes it a little. “I was going to get pulled into this stuff no matter what. And at least—” he stops that sentence before he can finish it. It’s not the best idea to tell Kyle that part of the reason he was able to use it and transform it into this new form was… because he wanted to save Kyle. Nick’s face heats up a bit at the idea of how that would go.

Kyle sighs and looks away again. “Yeah. Well. Um. I should probably—”

Oh no. Nick’s not letting Kyle run away again so quickly. Yeah, he wants to let Kyle have his space, but all they’ve addressed is the psychic stuff. 

“I’m still interested—” he starts. Wait. No. Quick, change that thought. “In hearing your music. Um. Your show. We’re all here to listen to it.”

Kyle gives him a tiny smile and that feels like a victory.

“Yeah. It’s, um. It’s a good set. I know you don’t know our songs yet, but they’re gonna be some favorites. And one that’s technically unreleased, but it’s going to be on the album, whenever we make it.”

“I can’t wait,” Nick says. “And… and after your show… I’d like to have another chance— since yesterday, we didn’t really get a chance to hang out together. So, if you’re up for it… I’d like to go around the festival again with you. Or around the city, if you’d rather do that. Just… whatever you want to do.”

Kyle’s mouth opens in a small O shape. “You— after everything that’s happened—”

“Wasn’t your fault,” Nick insists again. He takes a deep breath. Okay. He just needs to lay it out. Flirting is hard, but it’s especially hard now because he doesn’t want to scare Kyle away. “I want to… be around you. And spend time with you. It’s got nothing to do with all the psychic stuff that happened. It’s because… you’re…” 

Amazing. Beautiful. Cute. Deserving of so much more. Enrapturing. The first guy that Nick’s met in a long time that kinda makes him want to throw all of his fame away and kiss him in public, for anyone to see— 

Okay, no he’s getting ahead of himself. He’s falling too quickly. 

Kyle’s expecting an answer.

“You’re sweet.”

Kyle’s cheeks go red and his eyes grow wide. Nick’s probably got the same expression because that is _not_ what he was intending on saying.

“It’s— I mean—”

“Sure,” Kyle mumbles, looking at the ground again and fidgeting. “Um. Yeah. Sounds fun. Uh. I just have to pack up all our gear after the show. And then… yeah. Whatever you want to do.”

“Awesome,” Nick says.

Kyle’s still flustered as he turns and runs back to his band. After calming his racing heart, Nick tells himself that’s a good thing. That means the flirting is working.

“Don’t forget to kiss him,” Kevin says, leaning in to talk directly into Nick’s ear.

Nick groans and shoves at his brother.


	27. Chapter 27

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> day 27: scarecrows (yeah I meant to write those into this somewhere but it didnt happen lol)

December’s Tragedy’s final set of the Happy Halloween Fest goes amazingly well. It’s one of Kyle’s favorite performances ever, actually. He gets to play most of his favorite songs (that he wrote himself), Nick Jonas is watching (and Kyle knows he’s actually enjoying the music), and there’s a few more people in the audience than there were the first day (possibly because of the Jonas Brothers’ tweet the previous night). 

And he’s feeling well rested for once. That’s possibly the only thing Kyle’s happy about, regarding Midnight. Yeah, he had to deal with all those visions that he’s still not ready to share with Awsten and Steve, but he was technically able to sleep for over twenty four hours. He’ll take that.

After the show, he takes the time to help Scott move all their gear back to the van. Scott keeps insisting he’s fine, but Kyle hates being a lead singer diva who won’t help out. Besides, Asher is hanging out at the merch table while Otto has already left with Geoff. 

Oh. And Brandon pulled him aside just a moment ago to tell him some frustrating news.

“Hey, Kyle. I need to tell you something.”

“Yeah?”

“I can’t make it to the show next Saturday at the Greenberry. Sorry.”

“...what?”

“Yeah, sorry, stuff came up out of nowhere.”

Kyle really needs to find a new fucking guitarist. It’ll be a shame, cause Brandon’s cousin gives them a discount on screen printing their merch, but Kyle can deal with paying the full price. 

Where the hell is he going to find another guitarist within a week? He really doesn’t want to ask Geoff— that’ll just be way too awkward— but he doesn’t know many other people who aren’t already in bands or just too busy. 

Kyle realizes he’s been staring at his amp on the ground for at least a minute without moving. He shakes his head and bends down to pick it up. Then, he turns around quickly and runs directly into Nick. 

Nick catches him, latching onto Kyle’s arms and making all of his thoughts vacate his head. 

“Sorry,” Nick says, although he doesn’t let go right away. Kyle can feel his face warming up. 

“Uh,” he says, eloquently.

Nick lets go then, but he doesn’t really put much space between them. The amp is basically the only thing separating the two and it makes Kyle’s head a little dizzy with stupid excitement. He needs to, like, talk to Awsten for a minute to get annoyed and feel more like himself again. Unfortunately, Awsten’s not here.

“We’re still going to, um, hang out, right?” Nick says, sounding hopeful. 

Nick nods before he realizes what he’s doing. Not that he has much else to do, besides wallow in his complicated emotions about the events of the past three days. 

“Great!” Nick says enthusiastically. “That’s the last thing you have to take back, right?”

It seems to be so. While Kyle hasn’t been paying attention, Scott’s taken care of everything. Damn him and how considerate he is. If they were actually attracted to each other, Kyle would absolutely marry Scott. But Kyle’s more attracted to cute, sensitive, dark-haired people like…

Nick smiles at him and Kyle’s brain shorts out. He moves his legs mechanically, hoping he isn’t looking like a complete idiot right now.

“Gimme that,” Scott says, taking the amp and loading it into the van. “Alright. You’re staying, Kyle?” He gives Kyle and Nick a look that makes Kyle want to go hide in a dark cave somewhere. Scott’s totally going to text Awsten as soon as they walk away. 

“Yeah,” Kyle says. 

Scott barks out a laugh. “Yeah, yeah. You two have fun. Don’t break my boy’s heart, popstar, alright? He’s like a marshmallow on the inside.” And he just fucking walks away, laughing.

If there was ever a moment for Midnight to come in and possess him, Kyle thinks he’d like it to happen right about now. He takes back his earlier thought about marrying Scott; he hates him so much. Mortified, Kyle buries his face in his hands.

“Just—” he says into his palms. “Just ignore him.” He peels his hands away an inch or two and sneaks a glance at Nick, who looks rattled. “Uh, you have anywhere you wanna go?”

Nick shrugs. “Just… we can walk around?”

Good. They’re just hanging out. It’s not particularly date-like, and it’s nice. Fine. Comfortable. If they were, like, leaving the festival to go somewhere, then Kyle would be freaking out about whatever might or might not be happening between them, but that’s not happening. The date, anyway. This is just… them killing time together. 

Kyle can’t stop stealing looks at Nick. He wonders if Nick thinks he’s cute.

“Oh,” Nick lights up and starts walking faster. “This— I wanted to stop here again.” He stops at the alpaca crafter from the day before— no, _two days_ before. 

Kyle feels some of the things laid out on the table. “You want another scarf?” Nick’s wearing the one he got earlier, and the crafter comments on it. Nick compliments the woman’s work, making her beam at him.

“No, I want to get… these,” Nick says, picking up one of the pairs of knitted gloves Kyle was just feeling. The color matches the scarf he’s got. They’ll look good together, Kyle has to admit.

He gets a bit distracted looking at the little fluffy figurines while Nick pays for the gloves. So, he’s not prepared for Nick gently taking his arm— holy shit— and leading him away from the table— Nick Jonas is holding his arm— and sticking the gloves in Kyle’s face.

“These are for you,” Nick says.

Kyle blinks. “What?”

“I… I mean, I got them for you— if you don’t want them, then—”

“You— I—” Kyle stares open mouthed at Nick. “I don’t need— I mean— actually, I kinda— thank you—”

Nick pushes them against Kyle’s chest. Kyle takes them and his hands brush against Nick’s. Oh god. Oh fuck. He’s torn between cramming the gloves in his pockets so he doesn’t do something embarrassing like crying over them versus treating them like they’re made out of gold. He goes with the first option, because he’s too flustered to do much else.

“I’m— I should get you something,” Kyle says.

“No,” Nick says immediately. 

Kyle crosses his arms stubbornly. “Yes. What do you— I’ll get you lunch. Or do you want to see another magic show?”

Nick chuckles lightly. “I think I’ve seen enough magic for the week, thanks. But if you’re getting lunch for me, then I’m getting dessert for us.”

Oh, Kyle will see about that. He’ll just get lunch and dessert at the same time, so Nick can’t. They walk through the festival towards the main food court, pausing every other minute to watch other people play games. They actually get sidetracked for a bit longer when they end up going down a row of tables offering a plethora of free stuff, including tote bags. Nick puts his sword in his, even though half of it sticks out the top. Kyle meanwhile puts the gloves in his bag and tries not to think about how they match Nick’s scarf.

How is he going to wear those, knowing that? How is he going to be able to put them on his hands?

Fuck it, he’s going to wear them every damn day.

When they reach the food court, Nick tells Kyle what he’s in the mood for and Kyle hurries ahead to a vendor with a comparatively short line. Five minutes later, he’s sitting down with Nick at a picnic table.

“I said _I_ was going to get dessert,” Nick says, looking at the apple fritters Kyle’s brought back.

“I forgot,” Kyle says with a coy smile.

Nick laughs. “No you didn’t.”

Kyle fills his mouth with food, but that doesn’t stop Nick from talking.

“I’ll pay for the next date.”

Kyle nearly chokes on his food. Nick leans close and pats his back— totally unnecessary, really, because Kyle choking would be preferable to having to come up with a response for _that_.

“You okay?”

Kyle wheezes out some noise that might be a ‘yes.’ It’s mostly just him wheezing and losing his goddamn mind over the fact that Nick Jonas 1. thinks this is a date and 2. thinks there will be another one after this.

Fuck.

Kyle should… probably do a bit more to make it more memorable. He finds his voice again, as Nick is digging into his own meal.

“You, um. You wanna go on some rides after this?”

Nick gives him a look. “Right after we eat?”

“Nothing too intense— there’s some slow stuff,” Kyle says. “But… we can get ride wristbands and they’ll be good for the whole day. It’ll be… it’s fun. There’s a ton of them.” 

It’s been a while since he’s had the chance to do something like that with anyone he’s liked. The last time… was with Otto. Over a year ago. 

Nick smiles and nods. “Sure.”

The rest of lunch goes way more smoothly than how it started, with the two of them falling into easy conversation about rides and theme parks, and then laughing about their siblings’ motion sickness incidents. 

After that, they find a booth selling wristbands. They each get their own wristband, and then get in line for the first ride they find. It’s a haunted mansion, with little automated cars that drive people through the attraction. The seats are smaller than Kyle’s expecting, and he and Nick end up in the front seat together, pressed side by side. Nick puts his arm around Kyle’s shoulders and Kyle can’t pay attention to anything else for the entirety of the ride. Nick takes a picture of the two of them at some point and he thinks he’s smiling for it, but it’s all a blur.

For the next ride, they end up on another two-seater thing that spins. The motion of the spinning has Kyle squashed up against Nick’s side the whole time, face burning. Nick absolutely notices his blushing but thankfully doesn’t comment on it.

Pretty much all of the rides are like that. But as they’re getting in line for the sixth ride, Kyle notices Nick checking his phone. He only catches a second of Nick’s screen but he knows ignored calls and texts when he sees them.

“Are you supposed to be back at the stage now?” he asks Nick.

Nick looks guilty. “I mean… technically…”

Kyle grabs Nick’s arm and tugs. “Nick! You can’t— you’ve already gotten into trouble with your manager because of all the shit this week—”

“Most of that was unavoidable,” Nick says.

“Don’t— we can—” Kyle suddenly stops. All too soon, the reminder hits him that… that this is it. This is all he’ll ever have of Nick Jonas. Nick’s going to be leaving after the Jonas Brothers perform. And that’ll be the end of this little dream he’s had.

Nick looks pleadingly at Kyle. “Just this one last ride. Then I’ll go back. Okay?”

Kyle can’t muster the energy to protest. His heart is aching again. 

“Oh, before I forget,” Nick says, brightening up again. “Give me your phone.”

Kyle hands it over. And then Nick is pulling him close— so close, close enough that he can feel Nick’s heart beating in his chest— and—

“Smile,” Nick says.

Kyle smiles. Nick takes the picture, holds him for a second longer, and then lets go and hands his phone back. Kyle looks at the picture as the ride operator allows them in.

In the picture, he looks like he’s about to start crying.


	28. Chapter 28

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> day 28: the full moon

Joe and Kevin can be the worst sometimes. They embarrass Nick, tattle on him, get him in trouble, steal his stuff, and invade his space all the time. They’re his irritating older brothers and they seem to consider Bothering Nick to be a full time occupation. No matter how much older or more famous they get, it’ll always be the same.

But just moments ago, they distracted their manager long enough to let Nick and Kyle slip away right after the show. Nick is so grateful for that. He knows they’re all going to catch so much heat for it, but that’s a problem for later. He’ll take whatever he needs for this last opportunity.

He’s got just about an hour before they really need to be leaving for the airport, and he intends on spending every minute of that with Kyle. 

As soon as Nick had realized what was happening, he grabbed Kyle’s hand and took off in a full sprint. Now, Kyle’s laughing along with Nick as they run around people and tents, their hands still linked tightly.

It’s not just the exercise that’s making Nick’s heart race. 

They slow down once they reach the carnival ride area again. Nick feels Kyle start to release his hand, so he squeezes it for a moment before letting go.

“Which one now?” Nick says, looking around the festival. It’s more fun seeing the rides in the dark, when they’re all lit up with bright neon lights. The previous evening, he wasn’t really able to enjoy it. But it’s like something out of a cliche rom-com now.

“Not the Ferris wheel,” Kyle says. 

Nick looks at him. “Heights?”

Kyle shakes his head. “No, but the line is crazy at night. You’re more likely to get spotted.”

Nick thinks it might be worth it. Seeing the whole festival from the height of the Ferris wheel, with all the lights everywhere… with Kyle. Then again, it’s a very couple-ish thing to do and he’s not sure if the two of them are exactly a couple. Yet.

_“Take care of him… I’ll know if you don’t.”_

Nick shakes his head. Why is he thinking about that now? He’s been trying so hard not to overthink all the stuff Midnight said to him… but for some reason, now it’s impossible to get it out of his mind. Midnight’s warning. The other entity. The sword… and the fact that it apparently can hurt Kyle.

But that’s— it’s Nick’s sword. And he’ll never hurt Kyle. Things will be alright.

Nick eases a bright smile on his face. “How about that one,” he says, pointing to the ride they went on earlier. The one that spun and pressed Kyle against his side for an entire minute and a half. Nick wants to do that again.

Kyle stutters a bit but some of the noises sound like agreement, so Nick leads the way and they get in line. It’s not too long.

“How much time do you have?” Kyle says.

Not enough. Nick sighs. His phone is on silent, but he can still feel it buzzing in his pocket. “I mean… if I’m not being responsible—”

“Nick,” Kyle says in a scolding tone. 

Nick holds up his hands. “I can go on a couple rides. I just have to get back… in maybe half an hour?”

Kyle looks frustrated, but then his expression softens. “Okay,” he says. 

“Hey,” Nick says. He feels brave enough to hold Kyle in his hands. “Don’t think about that. Just have fun.”

Kyle smiles back, but his eyes are still sad. Nick doesn’t know what to do. 

They get on the ride and Nick puts his arm around Kyle. “How was the show?” he asks, for the sake of having something nicer to talk about.

“Amazing,” Kyle says wistfully. “It was—so amazing. It’s… that’s always been a dream of mine, you know? I mean… I’ve been a fan of you guys for so long. I’ve seen you live before, but it’s different. Being up there, versus being down in the crowd. It’s like being in another world.”

The ride starts moving and Nick pulls him a bit closer against his side. He closes his eyes for a moment and imagines, just for a second, that he could have this. For more than just these past four (interrupted) days. Kyle is so warm and cute, and powerful onstage, and sensitive and mysterious… and Nick just wants to have him and learn every piece of him that Kyle will give him. He wants to share his life and his little bits of happiness with Kyle too.

He thinks maybe he could fall in love with Kyle one day.

“Sorry for squashing you,” Kyle says. 

“It’s okay,” Nick says. That’s the whole reason he picked this ride.

It’s over too soon, unfortunately, and they get off. Kyle at least has a more genuine smile on his face. He’s also a bit red in the cheeks too. 

“You wanna pick the next one?” Nick says.

“Sure!” Kyle says. They don’t join hands again, but they walk side by side as Kyle looks for the next ride. “The lines are getting long,” he comments after a few minutes. “I guess everyone who was at your show came here after.” 

Nick feels like he should maybe apologize for that. But then the carousel comes into view and they both stop moving.

Nick can’t help the emotions he feels seeing that ride now, but he quickly realizes Kyle’s good mood has completely vanished. He takes Kyle’s hand and pulls him in the opposite direction. 

“Actually, I have a better idea,” he says. He spots the perfect place and makes a beeline for it. “You got dessert earlier, so I still owe you something.”

“What?” Kyle says. “No, you don’t owe me—”

“This,” Nick says, stopping right in front of the game. There are probably a thousand glass bottles set up, and a young woman has just finished throwing a bunch of plastic rings at them, landing none of them. The game has got some massive prizes on display, and Nick knows that means it’s probably a difficult game to win, but that’s fine. He’s got money to throw away, and if it means he can distract Kyle for a while, it’s worth it. 

“Nick, no,” Kyle says, gently pulling on Nick’s arm. “These games are impossible unless you’re telekinetic. Don’t—”

“You want to play?” the game operator says. “You only need to land one to win! Five dollars for seven tries!”

“Yes,” Nick says. He hands over a ten dollar bill and the guy takes it.

“No,” Kyle says, but his voice is too quiet for the guy running the game to hear. He won’t let go of Nick’s arm, so Nick takes the rings from the game operator with his non-dominant hand instead. 

“I’m going to win you one of those,” Nick says, nodding up at the giant plush animals hanging above the rings. They’re mostly all unicorns and dragons in pinks and purples. They’ve got to be at least four feet tall, and Nick is going to throw all of his money into this game if it means he’ll be able to walk back with Kyle carrying one of those things. 

“Nick, you’re going to waste your money,” Kyle says.

“Not if I win it with these,” Nick says, holding up his handful of plastic rings. 

He throws the whole handful at the bottles.

None of them make it onto the bottles. 

“See?” Kyle says. “Come on, let’s go on another ride.”

“Aw! Try again?” the game operator says. “You only need to land one! One ring, you win any of those prizes!”

“Absolutely,” Nick says. He pays another ten dollars and gets the next handful of rings.

Kyle groans and lets go of Nick’s arm. “We’re going to be here all night.”

“No we won’t,” Nick assures him. He aims a bit more carefully with the rings now, but each one bounces off the tops of the bottles until he’s down to his last ring. He holds it back at Kyle. “Hey, wish me luck on this. That’s why I haven’t won yet.”

Kyle rolls his eyes. “You’re not gonna make it.”

“Yes I will.”

The two of them make eye contact for several long seconds until Kyle bursts into giggles and Nick grins at him. 

“Fine. Good luck on what’s hopefully going to be your last ring toss, Nick.”

Nick turns and throws the ring.

It bounces.

And it lands on a bottle.

“I did it! Kyle!” Nick yells, jumping up and down in excitement. 

“What!” Kyle comes closer to look. 

“Congratulations!” the game operator says. “Pick out a prize, young man!” Then he gestures at some people standing behind Nick and Kyle. “See that! One ring, you can win a prize! Come on and give it a try! Five dollars for seven tries!”

“Which one do you want?” Nick says.

“I don’t— you’re the one who won it—” Kyle says.

“For _you_,” Nick says. “The unicorn?”

“No,” Kyle says immediately. “Awsten will steal it. Um. The dragon? The black and pink one?”

“Alright,” Nick says. He points it out to the game operator, who pulls it down and hands it over, and then busies himself with selling rings to the people who’ve gathered in hopes of winning something too.

Nick pushes the giant plush dragon into Kyle’s arms. He was wrong about how big it is: it’s got to be about five feet tall, and it’s big and round. Kyle closes his eyes and smiles so cutely as he squeezes the dragon, and Nick’s chest hurts with how happy he is. He quickly pulls out his phone to snap a picture before Kyle notices. 

He has… a lot of texts on his phone. And several of them are from his brothers. Shit.

“You’re ridiculous,” Kyle says. Nick’s thankfully hidden his phone away again. “Thank you. This is so cute.”

Not as cute as you.

That’s the most cliche thing Nick could say. It might ruin the moment, though, so instead he says,

“I should be heading back soon.”

Moment effectively ruined. He’s such an idiot.

But Kyle just nods. “Yeah. This was a perfect end to it all, though. I’m glad you won.”

“Yeah,” Nick says, because he can’t think of anything else. The bittersweetness is starting to build up in him. Yeah, it’s good, but he wishes they had more time. But… if the whole thing with Midnight didn’t happen, how would things be different? Even if they didn’t have much choice in it, the two of them were kind of forced closer together, in a way. And… Nick can’t really regret too much of the outcome. The warning and the thing about the other two items is weird, but he’s got some magic sword and… and Kyle. And Kyle’s number. And he’s just won Kyle a carnival prize, which feels kind of like a couple-ish thing to do.

They get a lot of looks as they’re walking back, but Nick thinks most of them are due to the giant plush dragon in Kyle’s arms. The mood is still pretty light between them, even when they see the empty stage before them. 

But when Nick sees the SUV and his manager pacing back and forth outside of it, he stops. 

He doesn’t want it to end like this. 

He turns to Kyle. “I… I don’t want this to be the end,” he says.

Kyle’s smile becomes a bit sad. “Me neither. But—”

“Text me,” Nick says. “I’ll text you. I’ll call you, if you’re okay with that. I… I want to see you again. I don’t want to—”

I don’t want to lose you.

Nick can’t get those words out, and he feels like a coward. 

_“Take care of him… I’ll know if you don’t.”_

Nick’s hands momentarily close into fists. Fuck Midnight. Fuck it for insinuating that Nick would even think about hurting Kyle… 

He steps closer to Kyle. Kyle lowers the plush dragon to the ground.

“Don’t forget me,” Kyle says softly. 

“I won’t,” Nick says as firmly as possible. And he closes the distance between them. He puts his hands on Kyle’s shoulders, holding him as their lips meet. Kyle leans into the kiss, dropping the dragon and throwing his arms around Nick’s body. They hold each other as they kiss, as everything around them loses importance and meaning. It’s just them. 

It’s sweet and simple.

Nick knows he’s never going to forget it.

They have to come apart, and the world tries to push itself back in. Nick ignores it for a while longer, as he commits everything about Kyle in this moment to memory. He’s unguarded right now, open and hoping and yet there’s still something melancholy in his expression that thinks Nick is too good to be true. He’s wrong. Kyle is the one who’s too good to be true.

“Don’t forget me,” Nick says, echoing Kyle’s words back.

Kyle laughs. “As if I could.”

“Nick!” his manager yells. Nick winces and hopes it’s dark enough that he didn’t see everything that just happened. Not that he’s embarrassed; it’s just that was a private moment. 

“Time to go,” Kyle says. He leans close to Nick again and presses a quick kiss against Nick’s cheek. “See you later, I hope.”

Nick nods and lets go of Kyle. It feels like if he turns his back on Kyle, he’ll disappear, so he walks backwards instead. That is, until his manager grabs him.

“Come on! Your stuff’s already waiting at the airport, we need to leave! Now!”

He’s dragged back to the car and pushed into the back seat, where Kevin and Joe are already waiting. The engine’s already on, and the car moves before the door’s even shut. Nick looks out through the tinted window.

Kyle’s still out there. The dragon is held under one arm, and his other arm is up and waving as the SUV takes Nick away. 

He can tell Joe and Kevin are expecting him to talk about what they may or may not have just seen, but he needs to do something first. He takes out his phone again, ignores all the notifications, and types a quick text.

_see you again soon ❤️_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Im gonna lose my entire goddamn mind I love this fic


	29. Chapter 29

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> day 29: fear

“So Geoff’s psychic power is gone,” Awsten says. “Midnight just ate that up like a fucking snack.”

Jawn parks the car in a parking spot outside his apartment and looks at Awsten. “When did you find that out?”

“Geoff tried to use his power earlier,” Awsten explains as the two of them get out of Jawn’s car. “At the hotel. When we were trying to figure out how to get the other shit that Midnight wanted. I figured… that’s probably what happened. Since Midnight’s a fucking bitch.”

Jawn says nothing until they get inside his apartment. Awsten trails after him to the kitchen, where Jawn starts pulling food out of the refrigerator. 

“I think we should try and talk to Midnight,” Jawn says.

Awsten’s startled. That’s not what he was expecting Jawn to say. 

“Uh, did you not hear— you’re aware of all the shit Midnight’s done? Possessed Kyle, possessed Steve in the past, stole a ton of psychics’ powers, kidnapped _you_, threatened us—”

“Yes,” Jawn says. “But it knows about that other entity.”

“I don’t care about the other entity,” Awsten says. 

Jawn gives him a look. 

Awsten groans. “Fine. But… look. Fuck. This shit came out of nowhere. Two goddamn superpowered entities that want to use me, Kyle, and the fucking Jonas Brothers of all people as, like, chess pieces. I don’t fucking trust either of them. I’m more interested in, like, looking into what Midnight is and figuring out how to protect against it.”

Even as he says that, Awsten already knows trying to get rid of Midnight will likely be a losing battle. Steve said it’s been connected to their family for generations. It knew all about him and Kyle. He scowls as the thought occurs to him that it might even have a way of keeping an eye on them even when it’s not possessing one of them.

“I hate this,” Awten grumbles. “I don’t want to work with some angry entity that kidnapped you and forced me to do things for it.”

“It’s calmed down now,” Jawn says. “And the Jonas Brothers have left.”

“What if they get those other two things while they’re gone?” Awsten says.

Jawn bites his lip and looks away. Then he looks back at Awsten with a determined face. “Then we should know what we’re going to be in for. Like I said, Midnight’s calmed down a bit. We can try to talk to it and figure out the best way to protect ourselves against this other thing. Plus, if Nick tells Kyle he’s got another one, then Midnight can—”

“Wait,” Awsten says. Nick and Kyle. God, he forgot. “Fuck. We have to rely on fucking _Kyle_ to keep up with this shit?”

Jawn laughs. “Yeah, we’ll have to keep on top of him about that.”

Awsten isn’t excited about the prospect. Kyle’s going to hate having Awsten meddling in his potential love life. Yes, _love life_. Awsten could tell Nick is absolutely, one hundred percent into his dorky emo twin. So, Nick Jonas better have Kyle’s number. For the obvious reason of needing to keep in touch about this psychic bullshit, but also because it’ll be more pleasant dealing with a gloomy pining Kyle than a gloomy heartbroken Kyle. It’s still annoying to deal with either version of Kyle.

Jawn takes his reheated food out of the microwave and heads for the living room. Awsten sits down on the couch first and turns on the television. Jawn cuddles up next to him, his fork clicking against his plate as the smell of Italian fills the room. Awsten sighs and relaxes against his boyfriend.

He’s back.

He’s safe.

They’re together again.

And he’ll do anything to keep this— to protect this comfort that he has with Jawn. Jawn is relaxed and comfortable and… and he deserves to stay that way. He deserves more than the danger Awsten keeps putting him in. Unintentionally and by association, but it’s still technically his fault.

“I’ll talk to Midnight,” he says, staring at the television without actually watching it.

“Awsten…”

“I got you into another… you know. Midnight only went after you because of me,” Awsten can’t bear to look at Jawn, but his presence beside him is an anchor. If he didn’t have that, Awsten would be horribly, desperately lost at sea. “It’s only been a month since— since you had to help me in the astral-spirit world.”

Since Awsten nearly got them both lost in there forever.

“Yeah,” Jawn says. “But we still go astral projecting. It’s fun. We both have fun. And that’s never showed up again, that forest thing.”

Awsten holds in the sudden thought that the forest might have something to do with Midnight. Or… or even the other entity. He’ll have to ask Midnight about it. Later. That’s something he doesn’t exactly want Kyle and Steve to know about, and he has no interest in starting to communicate with Midnight without his brothers with him. 

Jawn laughs. “You’re kind of a danger magnet, you know? But it’s okay.”

Awsten feels horribly responsible. Jawn puts down his plate and moves on the couch, grabbing Awsten’s hand and lacing their fingers together. Now Awsten still feels horrible, but his anchor is holding him down. Holding him to something stable.

“Imagine if you had to deal with all of that shit— everything’s that happened, by yourself,” Jawn says in a very serious tone. “That would suck, right? So it’s a good thing you’ve got me and Steve and Otto and Geoff and Kyle, and fuck it, even the Jonas Brothers to help out. Maybe even Scott.”

Awsten snorts. “Scott’s a fucking moron.” Helpful, prompt, considerate, and very sweet, but he’s so stupid. He’s one of the bluntest people Awsten’s ever met, but he’s so nice that he forgets it all the time. One of these days, he’s going to embarrass the fuck out of Kyle in front of someone important in the music industry and Kyle might actually die. 

But yeah, he’s pretty much useless. 

“He _is_ a moron,” Jawn admits. “But he’d help if we needed it.”

That’s true. Awsten sighs and cuddles up closer to Jawn’s side. “Yeah. I still feel like shit about all that, but okay, I guess you have a point. But next time— okay, when I talk to Midnight, I’m gonna tell it to leave you the fuck out of any of its future schemes.”

Jawn’s quiet for a few seconds. Then,

“It’s not like I want you to get hurt either,” Jawn says softly. “I get it, I’m not psychic, but I want to help. At least… for now, tell me everything you find out. You promise that?”

Awsten nods. The cooking show on the television is slowly starting to catch his interest. If it wasn’t for the serious conversation topic, it’d feel just like a normal evening for the two of them.

“I promise.”


	30. Chapter 30

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> day 30: eyes
> 
> time to make this story FUNNY again

The bus comes to a stop. Kyle moves to the front and steps off, eyes still on the screen of his phone. He’s feeling good about the conversation he’s having with the guitarist he met earlier that morning at Pumpkin Space. He still won’t know for sure if things will work out until later, though.

But at least he’s _found_ a guitarist. And from what he heard, she’s way better than Brandon. Not like that’s hard; Brandon sucks shit. But Kyle’s feeling great about it. He’s already texted everyone else, asking for some extra band practices for Alexis’ sake. He’s also planning on meeting with her tonight, one on one, to specifically go over the songs they’ll be playing that night.

It’s super short notice, but she seems up for the challenge. She’s also, like, insanely cool. Personality, appearance, and guitar skills. Plus she’s already familiar with December’s Tragedy and what their sound is, and she’s into their stuff. She’s going to be a huge upgrade from fucking Brandon.

It’s not long before Kyle’s at Steve’s place. He sidesteps a large inflatable Halloween decoration that’s nearly blocking the door, and grabs the handle. It’s unlocked, but as he walks inside, a life-size mechanical Santa figure (placed right in front of the window beside the door) starts laughing loudly.

Kyle nearly jumps out of his skin. “God damn it,” he says under his breath. “Steve! What’s this Santa doing here?”

“Pizza,” Steve yells from the direction of the kitchen. 

Kyle rolls his eyes. He makes his way to the kitchen where, sure enough, Steve’s sitting at his table with three boxes of pizza. Two boxes are open already, and the third has ‘KYLE’S’ written on the top in gold sharpie.

Awsten’s sitting at the table, with an assortment of fresh fruit containers open in front of him. “You took your time getting here,” he says. “We said noon. Knight Family Get-Together, at noon-o-clock on the fucking dot.”

Kyle glances at the screen of his phone. It’s eleven fifty-six. “It’s not noon yet,” he says.

Steve slaps the top of Kyle’s pizza box. “Doesn’t matter. You’re the last one here. Hurry and eat up, zombie face, we’ve got shit to talk about.”

Kyle opens his pizza box. Steve got his favorite. From the looks of it, he got his own favorite and Awsten’s favorite as well. “Zombie face?” Kyle repeats. 

“Yep,” Steve says. 

Awsten snickers. Kyle decides to ignore that. He goes over to the table with his pizza. After setting his phone down on the table, he picks up his first slice of pizza. 

He only manages to take one bite before Awsten lunges across the table to steal his phone.

“Give that back!” Kyle yells, dropping his slice of pizza and reaching forward to grab it.

“Nope!” Awsten says, leaning out of Kyle’s reach.

“Don’t talk with food in your mouth, Kyle,” Steve says. “That’s nasty. Where’d you learn those manners from?”

“Oh,” Awsten coos. “You’ve got a new text. From _Nick Jonas_! Why don’t you have a cute nickname for him yet?”

“Nick’s still texting you?” Steve says.

“Give it back!” Kyle screeches. He runs around the table to try and catch Awsten, but Awsten just runs as fast as he does to avoid him. “Awsten!”

“What’s your phone password, Kyle?” Awsten says. 

“GIVE IT BACK!”

Kyle throws himself forward and crashes into Awsten. Both of them end up on Steve’s floor in a pile. Kyle rips his phone out of Awsten’s hands and curls around it to keep Awsten from looking at the screen. Thankfully, it doesn’t look like Awsten managed to open it. All he can see is the fact that Nick’s texted him.

Awsten groans. “Kyle you’re so mean.”

“Can one of you explain why Nick’s still texting Kyle— is he checking up on him?” Steve says.

“Nick and Kyle are dating now,” Awsten says.

“No we’re not!” Kyle says immediately. His heart picks up at the thought of it, though. They’re not… they’re not dating. They went on maybe two and a half dates and they kissed, but they’re not, like, _actually_ dating. 

“Wait, you’re not?” Awsten says, sounding surprised. “Did he— he’s like, super into you. And you’re into him. And you went on, like, dates. Was it awkward?”

“You’re dating Nick Jonas?” Steve says. “That’s why— wait, but I thought Midnight was only interested in him because of his thing. The sword and the other entity thing. And—” 

“It’s complicated,” Kyle says. “But— yeah, we, um. Kissed, but—”

“YOU KISSED!” Awsten yells. “Kyle, you—”

“Was it on the first date?” Steve says. “Because, I’m all for kissing whenever you feel like it, but Nick’s a pop star, and he—”

“If you’re not dating, that text had better be him asking you to,” Awsten says, his tone going very serious. “Otherwise I gotta take up my big brother responsibilities—”

“I don’t need your advice!” Kyle says. “Stay out of my business! I’m— I don’t know what’s going to happen with Nick!”

“He knows you’ve got two big brothers with psychic powers who will destroy him if he breaks your heart,” Awsten says.

“We’re twins; you’re not my big brother,” Kyle says, exasperated. “I was born before you, anyway. And don’t threaten him. He’s nice. You’ve fucking spent time with him while you were trying to get me un-possessed.”

“That’s true,” Steve says. “He’s got points for that.”

“Oh, you should get him to guest list you for whatever tour he does next,” Awsten says. “So you can follow it and hang out with him and go on dates—”

“Shut up!” Kyle says. “Stop trying to help! We’re not even boyfriends yet!”

“Okay, he loses points for that,” Steve says. “I mean, you’re a weird little dude, but you’re like one of the best people I know. He shoulda asked you out, like properly, right away. Did he at least make some big romantic gesture? That’s a pretty clear sign.”

Kyle’s face goes red as he remembers the carnival game. And the kiss. 

Steve and Awsten pick up on it right away. 

“Oh, you’ve got to tell us everything,” Steve says, a bright grin taking up his face.

Kyle thumps his head against the wall he’s leaning up against. “Weren’t we going to talk about Midnight? Let’s talk about Midnight instead.”

“No, this takes priority,” Awsten says. “Come on, Kyle. Time to talk about your feelings.”


	31. Chapter 31

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> day 31: mysteries

December’s Tragedy has quite a number of videos on their YouTube channel. There are some covers, a partial recording of a live show (filmed by Jawn and edited by Awsten, apparently), a few more casual videos, and six music videos. They’re all low-budget videos, made with whatever resources the band members had at the time, but Nick likes them.

There’s a particularly fun video for Shooting Star, one of the songs the band played at the festival that got a great reaction from the crowd. It’s a compilation of clips of the members on a tour, traveling in Asher’s van and just living life. Nick’s been rewatching it a lot, partly for the music and partly for all the parts where Kyle’s laughing and having fun. 

December’s Tragedy also has videos for Candy, Look The Part, Voicemail Serenade, Game Plan and… Lifesaver. Nick had avoided the video for Lifesaver when he was still in Dove, because the thumbnail on the video was a closeup of Kyle and Otto.

But now that he’s home…

He’s watched it. It’s one of December’s Tragedy’s most-viewed videos, and it’s easy to see why now. 

It shows the four members of December’s Tragedy at the beach, splashing in the water and running around in the sand. Of course, there are moments during the chorus that show them all at a shaded pavilion, playing their instruments. But there’s also… so many parts where it’s just the band members messing around in the sun. 

Plenty of shots that show all of them shirtless and wet. 

Kyle’s looks are exactly what Nick would expect: he’s a sort of lanky band dude with a fair amount of muscle from playing guitar. And from regular exercise. But Otto is a surprise. He’s got _abs_. Like, actual abs. And biceps and shoulders and every other muscle that makes a guy look awesome. Not to mention the number of shots where he and Kyle are together in the ocean or on the beach, with eyes only for each other…

The video was posted almost two years ago but it still makes Nick bite his lip and frown. He’s not sure whether he wants to look in the comments of the video. It seems to be common knowledge for fans of the band that Kyle and Otto used to be a thing. 

The video ends again and he hits replay, watching the band rush out onto the sand with smiles on their faces once again. In the middle of the first verse, Otto knocks Kyle down into the sand and the band all laughs. Nick puts his hand against his mouth and thinks about how Kyle kissed him.

“I should start working out,” he mutters to himself. 

His door crashes open and Nick quickly flips his laptop screen down before anyone sees it. He spins around in his chair.

“What’s going on, Nick!” Joe says, jumping onto Nick’s bed. 

Kevin comes around the other side of the room and tries to reach for Nick’s laptop. “You working on something?”

“No,” Nick says, pushing him away. “What do you want?”

“We’re checking up on you,” Joe says excitedly. “How are things with Kyle? Who’s going to visit who first?”

Nick’s mouth opens but he has no idea what to say.

“What’s he been texting you?” Kevin says, trying to take Nick’s phone next. 

Nick pulls his phone away from them. “He’s— none of your business! Do I come and ask you all about whoever you’re dating? No. Let me— I need to take this slow.”

“Is he slow at texting back?” Joe says.

Yes. Well, not really. Nick’s just been rereading every single message impatiently and trying not to be too obvious about how much he wishes he was back in Dove right now. Or that Kyle was with him at home. They just didn’t have enough time together, and Nick doesn’t want this to just become a wistful memory of what could be. It _will_ be something, if he has his way.

But he can’t just force that on Kyle. So… he’s been patient. Trying to be patient anyway. Kyle didn’t respond for a whole five hours after their early morning conversation, but he explained that he was talking to a musician and lost track of time. And now… it’s been almost two hours. 

It’s okay. Kyle’s got a life. Nick’s also got a life, but right now it mainly involves glaring daggers at Otto in music videos and dealing with his brothers trying to dig for details on his love life.

“It doesn’t matter if he’s a slow texter,” Kevin is saying to Joe. “It’s the quality over the quantity. Nick, has he said anything adorable?”

“Get out of my room,” Nick says.

“Yes or no. We’ll leave when you say so,” Kevin says.

“No you won’t,” Nick says. But Kevin and Joe make a show of making themselves comfortable, so he groans and says, “Yes. He’s so cute it’s unreal. I just— I wish he was here. I wanna take him to all the nice places around here.”

Kevin’s expression turns more serious. “So… do you have a plan? I mean… I doubt you’ll be able to go public about it—”

Yeah. That’s a whole mess that Nick isn’t interested in thinking about.

“—but you want to get together. Like a trip or something.”

“We don’t have time for a trip,” Joe says. “But I’ve got an idea. I was thinking about it earlier, actually.”

Nick looks at him cautiously. “What is it?”

Joe smiles triumphantly. “We get December’s Tragedy to open for our next tour. I know— I know we don’t— like, ever— get the chance to pick that stuff. But they’ll be planning the next one soon, right? All three of us go over, talk to them about it, put them in touch with Kyle… it’s worth a shot. It’ll be good for the rest of December’s Tragedy too, since they’re about to record their album. Nothing like a stadium tour with a big name band to boost sales and get recognized.”

Nick swallows. It feels like too much to hope for. “I don’t know if we’ll be able to convince them.”

“Well, obviously we leave the part about how you’ve got the hots for the singer,” Joe says. “But if we put it the right way, make it seem like… I don’t know…”

“December’s Tragedy is still unsigned,” Kevin says suddenly.

Nick feels dread wash through him. “No—they don’t deserve to get fucked over like—”

“Not—” Kevin says quickly. “I just mean they’re more likely to— okay, look at it like how _they_ will see it. We just made friends with this little emo band with no label, no manager, no lawyer. Yeah, they’ll get taken advantage of, but everyone in music gets that. I’m just saying, it’s like… low cost, low risk?”

“Yeah!” Joe says. “December’s Tragedy will have everything to gain and those money-hungry assholes will have nothing to lose.”

Nick looks at the screen of his phone. Kyle still hasn’t texted him back yet.

“It sounds good,” he says. “I… let’s try and get it approved first. Before I tell Kyle. I don’t want to… you know, get him excited and then have to let him down.” Especially since Kyle has enough going on already. The album, Midnight, whatever else is happening in his life right now.

“Sounds good,” Kevin says.

Joe gets up off Nick’s bed. “Awesome! And hey, even if it doesn’t work out, we can figure out something. Fly him out here for a week. Just tell him to leave Midnight in Dove.”

“Thanks,” Nick says. He feels better now. Less stressed— or at least, a different kind of stress. 

His brothers leave the room, neglecting to shut the door. Nick sighs and gets up from his desk to go pick up the sword again. He slides the blade out of the sheath and feels for the pulse within it, which comes easily. This can be a part of his new workout, he realizes. It’ll be killing two birds with one stone. Get abs to impress Kyle _and_ figure out how to use his psychic sword to help Kyle. 

His phone vibrates at that moment and he puts the sword aside to unlock it.

And Nick stops to smile at his phone background, because it’s the picture he took of Kyle while he was onstage playing Psychic.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR READING THIS!!! Seriously, this is a really weird little thing and I'm fully aware that it's not exactly something that people go looking for when they're looking for Jonas Bros or Parx fics. I'm super impressed if you've read the whole fic, and I appreciate the fact that you took the time to check it out. 
> 
> Mostly, I wrote this because 1. I think Nick and Awsten's emo-sona (basically turned into an OC) would make an adorable couple and 2. I wanted to write a complete fic by writing every day for a month. Sorta like practice for NaNoWriMo. Also, lately, I've been rewatching a lot of EMH and MLA0 and other similar stuff, and I came up with this idea from that. The whole Knight Brothers Are All Psychic was originally a completely different idea (which was way less fun/happy), and I'm glad it became this instead.
> 
> Anyway, this is going to continue in several more fics. I've got plans for a prequel and at least two sequels. Cause if you're familiar with Blue Oyster Cult, you know that it's Harvester of Eyes, then Flaming Telepaths, and then Astronomy. That'll be fun.
> 
> THANK YOU AGAIN!!!


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